First Impact: Visitors
by ChernoMan
Summary: With the passing of a shooting star, Lincoln finds himself on the front lines of a battle with which the scale of goes far beyond anyone's imagination. Accompanying him in his journey, are strangers who dedicate their lives in finishing this very battle. What awaits the young Loud in his new life?
1. The Shooting Star

**Author's Notes: Alright fellas, let's get first chapter right, here's the rewrite. Unsure when I'll get a rewrite on Chapters 2 and 3, but I'll make sure I find time for them.**

 **In any case, here's the new one.**

* * *

 _Chapter 1. The Shooting Star_

After countless hours of research and observation, scientists from many parts of the world have agreed that a comet was to pass by Earth, coming at its closest to the planet yet during its many days of discovery.

One specific spot where the comet was going to make its passing was a town in Michigan's Royal Woods. Needless to say, this excited everyone there.

That wasn't to say there wasn't any skepticism regarding the report. These people chose simply to ignore it.

But one family in particular was the most interested in participating in this act of watching on as the comet makes its passing. This was the Loud Family, a name notorious around the town.

Their excitement was in part, thanks to resident scientist, Lisa Loud. She had done her own research regarding the comet. Although she initially was part of the skeptics, something happened that changed her mind about it.

Now, it's around 8 o'clock. Night. Everyone was gathered outside their houses, workplace, wherever they were. Some were even on the streets still.

While they waited, the Loud siblings did their best to prepare for the event. Those like Lori and Leni talked almost endlessly on their phones with their friends, many of whom shared their enthusiasm.

Some like Luna, Luan and Lucy were waiting with great anticipation as they believed they might get some inspiration for the things they do.

There were others who were also engaged in side activities as well, such as Lisa with her telescopes and notes, ready for further observation. Then there were the likes of their parents who couldn't do much better in containing their own excitement.

Another particular Loud wasn't exactly idling around either. In fact, he is also talking with his friend. Albeit in a very unconventional way.

"This is so exciting, isn't it, Clyde?" The only boy among the children spoke into his walkie talkie.

On the other side of the line was his friend, Clyde McBride, who agreed to the white-haired boy's question.

Clyde is one of the many acquaintances of the boy who was also part of the viewing party. The others were the Santiago Family, his friends and their families and even their teachers and other contacts.

After a long wait, the time came; coming into view, the comet made its appearance known as a series of small twinkles in the sky.

It was also something of note that with how it reacted towards sunlight, it was agreed upon that the comet possessed a metallic composition. Which is one of the things that piqued the attention of Lisa Loud.

For the first few moments that the comet became visible, people felt that it was somewhat... Underwhelming. It was only a twinkle in the night sky, not much different than the stars around it.

But it was far from over.

Even the Louds thought it wasn't living up to the hype it made. But Lisa? She patiently waited as she knew that the best part had yet to come.

 _That_ moment came. Once the comet came at the right spot, the light reflected off of it burst out, enhanced to a far greater degree, mesmerizing all who bore witness to it.

During this time, everyone moved only on instinct, taking pictures without the need of conscious effort.

Lori and Leni were now on video call with some of their friends, and they shared sentiments in watching on in complete silence and with their mouths agape.

Luna, Luan and Lucy were made speechless as their eyes trailed the comet.

Lisa was no different, rendered unable to respond to the point where her notes fell from her hands.

The same nearly happened to Lincoln, but his grip was stronger.

Overall, the entirety of the town were completely hypnotized. The event had silenced all who were skeptical about the whole deal, and brought about a plethora of emotions in all those who saw it.

Among the crowds who stood in the streets was a man who watched on silently, holding and clutching his stomach as everything went on.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity -which was actually only a few minutes-, the light show died down, allowing the people to process everything and express themselves.

"That was amazing!" The Loud Family exclaimed.

All that was left by now was once more, twinkles in the sky. The light show may have ended, but the comet was still there.

This gave a certain Loud an idea.

"Oh!" Lana perked up, looking over to her family members, "Let's make a wish!"

Although they didn't look like they'd be the kinds of people to do it, they all clasped their hands together and closed their eyes, wishing hard upon a star.

They were done after a minute or so of that, and by then, the comet was nothing more than a fainter series of twinkles.

At this point, there was no point in watching anymore, and it was decided that their little ensemble of night sky watch was done.

"Alright, kids, let's get back inside." Announced the Loud Mother.

Without protest, the kids all returned inside, ready to call it a day. Even though the whole thing lasted only around ten minutes.

Well, all returned except for a couple more.

With a sigh, Lincoln began, "You know, I really wish we could get more of something like this. It's really great, especially when it comes to winding down. April Fools was around two weeks ago, but I'm still trying to move past that. Did I mention that Lisa found a strange rock and kept insisting that it'll be a breakthrough?"

The boy then laughed as he recalled the event. He found it funny, the length that Lisa would go to just to convince people to let her do her things. Eventually they all compromised, Lisa can continue her project, under the condition that she performs them in her personal bunker.

It worked. For a short time, eventually they all found out that she had somehow been sneaking it in her room.

"With that, I can conclude my observation for the day." Lisa stated, before walking to the house.

Before she entered, she turned to the last one out.

"Do you not wish to return inside, Lincoln?" She asked.

Leaned against the railing, Lincoln stood alone. Looked up to the sky, still, he was smiling.

"Lincoln?"

"Huh?" Lincoln turned to his genius sister.

"Do you not wish to return inside?" Lisa repeated.

"Oh, I'll be there in a bit." Lincoln answered.

"Alright then." Lisa nodded, continuing on in her journey.

Inside, while Lisa was about to head upstairs, she was stopped by Luna.

"Hey Lise, where's Lincoln?"

"He's still outside."

"Oh, well he can't stay out for long." Luna said, running off to the door.

Peeking out the door, Luna looked at Lincoln, who was still on the railings.

"Hey, dude!" She called, getting the boy's attention, "Cone in! You know Mom doesn't like it if we stay out for too long."

Lincoln pondered his sister's words and responded, "Alright, I'm coming in."

Luna nodded and went on ahead as Lincoln approached.

Upon reaching the door, Lincoln looked back one last time.

But the moment he looked back at the sky, he thought something felt strange, as if he could sense the air around him change. When he looked closer, he thought the comet broke off and the fragment fell to Earth.

Then he shook his head.

"No, that can't be. That didn't happen." He tried to rationalize the situation.

If anything, he knew that telling Lisa about it would only have her talk about how that is impossible and that she would even go on a lecture saying how it would be so.

But no. What he thought happened, really did happen.

 _End of Chapter._

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 **End Notes: Not much different than the last one, but I made sure to include more of what you can expect from my writing style. You know, ease you guys in first? Anyway, I'd love to hear actual criticisms this time around.**


	2. Intertwining Paths

**Alright, I promised that I will be posting 3 chapters this month, here's the second one. Before I continue on after this, I need to know your thoughts on whether I should keep writing like this. Also, this is what I meant when I said chapters following the first one are going to be much longer than what I usually do.**

* * *

 _Chapter 2. Intertwining Paths_

It's weekend, a day when everybody gets to relax and unwind. Well, most people at least. Also different from regular weekends, was that there was actually something for the whole town to talk about. What else would this something be other than the comet? It happened last night, it shouldn't be that easy to forget something like that. Well, for most people, at least. This very event was also the hot topic for a certain duo.

Lincoln and Clyde walked down the sidewalks, having left the latter's residence minutes prior. Clearly the thoughts of the night-time celestial wonder from last night was still very much fresh in the minds of these two boys.

"Oh, that was so cool last night!" Clyde exclaimed

"Yeah, man, the way the comet came in. That's one way to keep everyone on their toes!" Lincoln said, sharing his friend's thoughts, commenting on the comet as well.

"I like how it came in so slowly, then slowly… then bling!"

"Oh man, I don't think we'll ever get to see something like that again!"

"I agree, if anything, that's probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not only that, it just so happened that Royal Woods -of all places- was the best viewing point."

"Man, wonder what the others thought of it."

"I don't know, I actually bumped into Rusty and the gang sometime before I reached your place; they said it was cool. But you know, not everyone agrees, Liam was feeling a bit uneasy about the whole thing, he said."

"That's funny, my dad said the same thing as well."

"Guess not everyone felt the same during all that, huh?"

It was then that they went silent for a short moment. It was weird when they gave it some more thought about the whole thing. Why would someone get a strange, dreadful feeling witnessing something like that? Whatever their reason could have been for feeling that way, it certainly wasn't something good. But it still didn't make any sense to them.

A few more minutes into their walk, they bumped into someone familiar. Quite familiar. It was Chandler. Clyde was the one who had the unfortunate pleasure of having done the bumping. While Chandler flinched only slightly, Clyde, being a much weaker person in general and having his focus on something else at the time, fell to the ground.

"Clyde! You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Ugh, watch it you dweebs." Chandler grunted.

"Ow, what's the hurry?" Clyde asked him.

"It's none of you guys' business." Said Chandler, looking quite annoyed, before leaving the two behind.

"Wonder what's with him." Clyde, briefly looking behind him as Chandler left before turning to Lincoln.

"I don't know." Shrugged the Loud boy

"Looks to me like he was looking for something." Assumed his friend.

"Eh, like he said, it's not our business. Come on, Clyde."

As they walked in the town, Lincoln began feeling strange. It's not that he felt like going back home, it was more like he was being called over. By whom, that was a different question. In fact, even after looking around, he found that there wasn't anyone following them or looking at him. This strange little action that spelled paranoia caught Clyde's attention, and he was asked about it.

"What's up with you, now?"

"I don't know, but it felt like somebody kept calling my name, and whenever I tried to see who it was, there's no one there."

"What, did you actually grew paranoid about what Liam said?"

"Come on, Clyde, Liam talked about the comet, not something like this."

"Heh, fair enough."

Not much longer into their walk, it felt as if the signal intensified. That's right, ever since the calling started, Lincoln couldn't shake this sound in his head that was eerily reminiscent of a radio noise. It almost felt like something was trying to connect with him. Maybe that's exactly what's happening. The more he tried to shake it off, the stronger it seemed to grow.

This case reached its peak when Lincoln looked away from where he was moving to, subconsciously moving towards wherever it is he felt inclined to go to. Clyde was about to ask him something just as he left, but of course, he had to postpone his question when he realized that Lincoln was no longer beside him.

The geeky boy looked around confusedly before he finally locked on to his friend, standing still where he was, looking around as if he was searching for something. Naturally, this left Clyde confused. Concerned, even. He then walked over to his friend whilst keeping an expression on his face that, expressed, what he was feeling over Lincoln's sudden actions.

When he was beside him, Lincoln didn't even seem to bother to look over to Clyde.

"Lincoln?" Clyde called out.

Silence.

"Lincoln, snap out of it!"

"Wuh-Wha-What?"

"Dude, you're really creeping me out, you okay?"

"I'm sorry, Clyde. But it really feels like someone was calling me and, well, I think it's around here somewhere?"

That statement made his poor friend even more confused than he already is, as signaled to him when one of his eyebrows was raised. Clyde was starting to get irritated, if this persisted, his eyes would definitely begin twitching. Fortunately, that won't be happening anytime soon.

"I know, I know, it's really weird, that much I get-" Lincoln said in an attempt to assure his friend nothing's wrong with him, only to stop talking and take off somewhere else.

Clyde simply sighed and chased after his friend after he had taken off again, catching up to him soon after. When he got there, Lincoln was crouched, and he was digging up the ground.

"Lincoln, I thought we were going to have fun and enjoy this weekend, not drag ourselves into something just because you-"

He was immediately cut short from his words when he felt Lincoln tap his shoulder, prompting him to look over to his friend and see what he was holding. It was a rock, though it was a bit shinier than any regular rock should be.

"What is that?" Asked Clyde.

"I don't know, it's a rock?" Lincoln assumed.

"But it looks a bit metallic." Clyde stated after noticing its reflectivity.

"Woah, you're right." Lincoln began inspecting it further.

"What do you think?"

"Maybe it's just a metal fragment?"

"No, metals aren't found this close to the surface. Not outside ores."

Lincoln then remembered that too and chuckled it off, shaking his head as he did so. He then looked back at the rock.

"So, what are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know, maybe I can ask Lisa about it?"

"Good idea."

"Anyway, let's get moving, don't want to look suspicious here."

"Agreed."

With that, the duo took off from where they were, nobody seemed to have noticed what they were doing at all.

Another thing of note was that the crowd density around the area they were just at returned to normal, with people walking around closer than before.

At least a few more hours later, Lincoln and Clyde came to a stop just in front of the latter's house. It was dusk, and the sun was almost about to touch the horizon. Despite what happened today, the boys never really felt as if their weekend was wasted. Though, they still thought that if possible, they should really make the best of tomorrow.

The boys had sat down on the curb, waiting as the light began to fade. The Loud family's curfew isn't going to be in effect for at least another hour and a half, but Lincoln decided that after the last of the light goes out, he's going home. Soon enough, darkness veiled the sky once more, marking the end of the day for most people.

Sighing, Lincoln turned to Clyde one last time before going off, "Alright, buddy, I gotta go now."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow, I guess."

With one last nod, the two departed. Lincoln jogged away from his friend's place, and Clyde turned to his back and walked to his home. Before he opened the door however, Clyde took one last look behind him. There wasn't anyone nor anything there, for the first few seconds at least. He thought nothing of it, but a bike did pass by. After that, it was back to his home for him. The moment he opened the door, he was greeted by his parents, who were ever so happy to see him.

It really didn't take long for Lincoln to get back to his home, what with him being quite familiar with the twists and turns of the neighbourhood. Upon reaching home, he immediately went in and up to his room. Dinner was just about ready and he needed to get ready soon. The trip upstairs was merely a short detour, he wanted to clear up everything he had in his pockets. That was when he remembered something.

He took out everything he got in his pockets; phone, some money, and the rock. Once he had it in his hands again, he was reminded of the strange things that they had forgotten happened this very day. He looked at it for a moment, thinking of his options on what he'd do with it. He remembered that he was going to take this to Lisa, but he may need to change his schedule on that. It's night, and he wouldn't want to cause much trouble. It seemed strange that he didn't let his genius sister on things at night when everyone is asleep, but he can't really take any chances. Loud family, the surname is quite literal.

Having decided what he would do with it, Lincoln placed the rock under his bed and ran off to the family bathroom to do one last business before coming back down to join his family in dinner.

Their meal together went as normally as it could be; Lincoln was with his younger sisters at the "kiddie" table and the elder sisters were with their parents. Some chaos ensued at the kiddie table, courtesy of the younger sisters. Though, with Lucy and Lily, at a much smaller scale. Nothing Lincoln isn't unfamiliar with. He himself didn't join this chaos, and seemed particularly focused on something else, which Lucy actually took note of.

With the elder sisters, they were having small conversations. Instead of small talks, the sisters were actually having a normal conversation that they started. Naturally, their parents was happy to see that they didn't have to instigate the conversation first. They were also pretty interested, they were intently listening to their daughters talk about their recent school days.

But, even though they spoke as loudly as they usually do, it was still hard to actually pick up anything that they talked about. This is especially true for Lincoln. He had been pretty quiet this whole time, and this went surprisingly unnoticed. Or so he thought at least. Once he was done, he quietly walked over to the sink and washed his plates. Him being done early caught the attention of his sisters, and it's no wonder why.

"Done already?" Lucy was the first to ask him.

"That's weird." Followed by Lola voicing her thoughts about it.

"Indeed, you would usually prefer to remain seated until most of us are finished. Maybe us, at least." Then Lisa.

"Something bothering you, Lincoln?" Lana subsequently followed with a question.

"Poo poo." Was all Lily said to end the chain.

"Sorry girls, I just wanted to hit the hay early today. Again, sorry I can't hang out for much longer."

With that final word, Lincoln walked away from the kitchen and into the dining room where what just happened repeated, only with different people and different responses. Unlike most times however, he managed to keep his responses casual and convincing enough that the sisters nor his parents find that it's weird he's deviating from his usual activities.

He arrived upstairs not long after all that, and he immediately head to his room. However, he received a strange feeling upon contact with the doorknob. It wasn't the same radio static he heard before and instead, it was a subtle but audible enough ringing in his head. He slowly pushed the door open and his eyes gravitated towards his bed almost instantaneously. From that moment on, his suspicions began to raise.

The boy let himself in and closed the door, making sure to lock it before he walked towards his bed, going down to a crawl shortly after so he could reach in for the rock he put under it. He made contact with it shortly after reaching under his bed, and for a short moment, he could feel as if something just poked through his mind. He suffered a terrible but short headache after that, and it faded just as quickly as it came. Strangely enough, he never let go of the rock.

So, he let go. He wasn't sure what just happened, but he did not expect something like that to happen. No one could have. Trying to make sense of things, Lincoln thought he was just tired and needed to rest. But first, he's going to need to change before bed.

* * *

Morning came, and the alarm in Lincoln's bedroom rung. He felt groggy still, having a less than comfortable night. He knew that if anything was to be suspected of causing this, it would have to be him moving round uncomfortably during his sleep. He couldn't quite recall what was going on in his dream since everything was dark, much like when one is asleep but but felt like they're very much awake.

Lincoln was still unsure whether the light at the end of his dream right before his alarm rang was because he was reaching the end of his subconscious state or a failed drift into a proper slumber. Either way, it felt disorienting.

Getting up slowly from his bed, Lincoln stretched a bit to get started. He was preparing to run full speed into the hallways before Lisa's sudden intrusion into his room stopped him right in his tracks.

"Morning, elder brother."

"Good morning, Lisa, what can I help you with?"

"I require your assistance in something and I wish to do it before our other sisters wake up. It's quite urgent."

"Okay, can I at least change, first?"

Lisa simply faked a cough, reminding Lincoln of the conditions that she feels is necessary to agree with.

"Oh, right. Okay then, come on, what is it that you wanted to show me?"

After that, they both walked out of the room, with Lisa leading Lincoln into her and Lily's. Once they were inside, Lincoln was quite stunned. He recalled that Lisa had brought in a rock a few days ago. But at that time, it looked to be a regular rock. Now, it looked shinier, almost familiar.

"So, what happened here?"

"Frankly I have no idea myself, it was yesterday, while you were out with Clyde; I was experimenting on this thing, trying my best to drill through and see what the core was like, maybe get something that might be useful. While I was doing that, to study the composition, it began to crack. I feared that it might break and reduce all my work on it to nothing, but surprise surprise, this form is what it took once all the outer shell broke off."

It was really strange; back when Lisa first brought it in, it still had the appearance of a regular rock but now, it looked more polished and had a more reflective surface. Whatever this thing could be, it was definitely not some natural phenomenon. Then it hit Lincoln as to why he felt a sense of familiarity.

"Oh my goodness…"

"What is it?"

"Hang on, I have something to show you."

With that, Lincoln ran out the room and came back moments later with something in his hands. Seeing that Lisa got pretty curious, Lincoln pulled back one hand off the item in his hand to reveal a small object similar to the one that Lisa had. It too, looked much more polished than simply looking like a strangely shiny rock, it now had a more refined surface.

"By Copernicus, where did you find this?"

"Outside, yesterday when Clyde and I were walking around."

"Give it to me."

Not knowing what else he could do with it, and that this was what he planned to do anyway, Lincoln handed the rock over. He followed Lisa as she made her way back to her work table.

Lisa hopped onto a footstool, with which she used to help herself onto a higher stool and placed the rock by the larger one. She then began turning around the larger fragment, looking for something it seems.

Meanwhile, Lincoln looked over to Lily's crib and found that she had woken up.

"Aw, did we wake you up, Lily? You wanna watch, too? Come on, then."

Lincoln carried Lily in his arms and looked back to Lisa, who was struggling to roll the rock over. Once she did, Lincoln was greeted with another strange thing. There was a hole that looked like a piece of it broke off.

"Woah…"

"Indeed, I believe that this piece you found, might just be last one for this missing fragment."

"I don't know, it doesn't look like it'll fit."

"Well, you never know until you try!"

After that proclamation, Lisa slowly aligned the smaller rock piece and tried to see if it would, in any way, fit into it. Much to everyone's surprise, it actually does. Another thing they didn't expect was how underwhelming the result was. Nothing happened. For the first few minutes at least.

Once their anticipation died out, the fragment began shaking. Soon, it began producing a high-pitched pulsating sound that forced everyone to cover their ears. Lily in particular, was very scared of this. Lincoln and Lisa was very much concerned with what's going to happen.

Soon, the shaking intensified, and the sound grew louder. Taking it up a notch, was a bright light that emanated from the cracks that was produced when the shaking got worse. It looked very much like it was about to explode.

"Ah, this is bad! Let's get out of here!" Lisa suggested.

Not a second more of delay, they all got out. Then they all leaned back on the wall behind them. The could see that the room was beginning to be completely illuminated by the light emitted from the strange object. As everything intensified, Lincoln and Lisa screamed while Lily leaned into Lincoln's chest, shivering and whimpering in fear. Lincoln noticed this and hugged her tightly, Lisa joining in soon after.

Then, it reached its zenith. They soon heard a loud boom, similar to that of an explosion. Clearly it was not, since the room in no way suffered damage equivalent to that of an actual explosion. Well, the room was still damaged, however.

Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief and placed Lily on the floor, only to fall to his back when the door behind him opened. Lincoln was then greeted with an angry Lola, the reason for that clear when he saw failed makeup on her face.

At that point it was clear, they had gathered the attention of the other sisters. The moment Lincoln sat up, he saw all his sisters there, with Lisa blocked off behind the crowd.

"What was that?" Lori asked first.

"We heard an explosion!" Lynn followed.

"Did Lisa mess up again?" Then Luna.

"Are you okay?" Leni chimed in, genuinely concerned if any of them had gotten hurt.

"Sounded like an explosive finale in there!" Luan tried joking.

"Uh…"

Lincoln raised his hands up, signaling to his sisters to back away a bit, allowing him to get up and brush himself.

"What were you doing, Lincoln Loud?" Lori questioned, averting her gaze towards the boy.

"It's nothing."

Lincoln was then met with skeptical eyes, obviously they weren't going to fall for that.

"Actually yes, I did mess up on one of my experiments. There's nothing to worry about!"

"Poo poo."

That seemed to actually work on some of them as they walked away, but some of them; such as Lori, Lynn and Lola weren't exactly sure whether their words could be trusted.

Knowing this, Lily bails Lincoln out by crying, pretending to reach out to Lori so she'd be the one to pick her up. It worked.

"Ugh, you guys better at least clean up the mess. Come on Lily, there there." Lori tried to calm Lily down as she walked down the stairs.

Once Lori was out of sight, it was two to go. Thankfully, they didn't have to waste anymore time since the remaining two excused themselves.

"Okay, whatever it was that you two were doing, just don't do that again. I don't wanna get distracted when I'm practicing."

Practicing indoors.

"And now I gotta spend more time to fix this mistake you guys made me do!"

Just as Lola said that, she slammed the door on Lincoln, with him unfortunately being close enough still for the door to actually hit him.

"Ow." Lincoln said, looking up while slightly touching his nose.

"Are you by any chance, hurt?"

"No, I'm fine, thankfully my nose isn't bleeding."

Then, the two turned back to the youngest sisters' room, remembering what really needs to be attended to.

Having gotten up, Lincoln moved to the door and pushed it open to reveal what had happened in Lisa and Lily's room. There doesn't seem to be any damage done, except for some objects thrown all over the place, with the more fragile ones like Lily's bottle and Lisa's beakers and all that being broken. But overall, the room was pretty much intact. However, there was one anomaly.

Replacing the fragment, was a strange object, revealed to the Loud duo after a small cloud of smoke cleared up. It was strange yes, but it had at the same time, a very familiar shape. It looked like a belt, but due to the material that made up its initial appearance, it looked and felt very metallic.

Lincoln was the first to pick it up, he inspected it with great interest and confusion. The belt's overall appearance was very simple; the buckle itself had a rectangular shape with a small glass-like part in the center that looks like a display screen of sorts. At least that's what it reminded Lincoln of. The strap composed of small, interconnected rectangular pieces. On both sides of the waist was two semi-circular objects. As far as Lincoln could tell, it doesn't seem to serve any purpose.

"What do you suppose this item could be?"

"I don't know Lisa, I don't know."

"In any case, I believe you should keep it for tonight."

"What, why?"

"Because, mine and Lily's room is a mess and besides, there isn't much space here to hide things in."

As much as Lincoln hated to admit, she was right.

"What now?"

"For now I suggest we keep quiet about this whole thing and just keep that thing a secret. I will try to conduct experiments on the object later at night, see what results it might yield."

Lincoln sighed and complied, bidding farewell to Lisa before walking out of the room. Only there did he realize that he still hasn't even changed his clothes yet. Things certainly got crazier than he could usually handle. He then quickly head back to his room and hid the belt under his bed. Before he went out to take a bath, he turned to the belt one last time. Boy does he have a lot to take in.

* * *

Later that night, after dinner, Lincoln was in his room talking to Clyde through their walkie-talkie like usual. The only unusual thing was that Lincoln was a bit less enthusiastic than usual. Quite understandable given what happened to him.

"So yeah, by the time things cleared up, this belt was there."

"Woah."

"Things just went from 0 to a 100 within seconds, I'm still trying to understand what exactly just happened."

"…Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah… I think I'll be fine… I think."

"Well, just try to calm down, okay? Don't want you to be too stressed out during school tomorrow."

After that statement from Clyde, things went quiet. Then it hit Lincoln, like a truckload of bricks moving at the speed of sound, that school was tomorrow. Yet another day was wasted because of something happening. Then, on the other side of the line, Clyde could only hear a long groan of exasperation.

"Sorry, buddy."

"It's okay, I needed the reminder."

"You wanna continue this tomorrow?"

"Yeah… maybe."

"Great, good night buddy."

Lincoln could then hear the line being cut off. He put away the walkie-talkie on the table beside his bed. Before he walked out to Lisa's room with the belt, he looked under his bed to give the belt another look. After telling himself that all that was real and trying to fully accept it again, he grabbed the item and walked out to Lisa's room once he heard the lights click, signaling to him that everyone had fallen asleep.

He reached the door to Lisa's room in a short time, the toddler was just coming out the room and she slowly closed the door before turning to Lincoln. The looked at each other before shifting their focus onto the belt. They nodded, and walked away, down the stairs, and out the house. By some miracle, all that was done without alerting even a single soul within the house. Their destination was Lisa's bunker behind the house.

* * *

Lincoln sighed as he walked alongside Clyde. He had spent most of last night helping Lisa to conduct experiments onto the belt, he didn't even do much, but he felt tired nonetheless.

"How was it?"

"Wh-what?"

"Last night, did you guys get anything?"

Lincoln briefly looked at the ground, before answering simply.

"No."

"…there has to be some results, isn't there?"

"Well, we found out that the thing was half-machine and half-organic, or something along that line."

"A bio-mechanical object?"

"I think."

Lincoln let out another sigh, looking down once more.

"Hey, it's okay, buddy. You'll get through this."

"Yeah, I just want to forget about it for now."

"I understand."

* * *

Back at the Loud house, under Lincoln's bed where the boy had returned the item to under Lisa's order, it began to emit a glow. From the display screen of sorts that it bore, an orange light glowed. There doesn't seem to be any reason for this.

* * *

The duo were walking quite slowly on their way to school, and only now did Clyde noticed something.

"You know, it's a bit empty here today, don't you think?"

Lincoln was surprised at hearing that, he looked up and around, realizing that fact as well. This only adds further to their slowly increasing panic, which skyrocketed when they heard the school bell rung. They were closing in on the school, but unfortunately, they seem to be running late.

"Oh my what!?"

"Come on, Clyde, we have to be quick!"

The duo quickly shifted gears, sprinting as fast as they could to school, their fear was increasing with each passing second at the fact that they still haven't stepped on school grounds yet. Though they usually have poor stamina when it comes to running around, the boost granted to them via adrenaline rush usually makes up for that.

They eventually did reach school, and without wasting another second, they prepped everything they need for first subject and rushed immediately into class, panting as they finally came to a stop just past the doorway.

"We- we made it…"

"Y-yeah…"

Just as they said that, however, Principal Huggins came in through the door, surprising the duo. When their shock subsided, they apologized and rushed to their seats. Surprisingly enough, Huggins' presence alone was able to keep the class silenced. This is all because they thought they're in trouble. He slowly walked to the teacher's desk, as if to create more tension than the situation is already in.

Then, he began.

"Well, class, I'm sure you know what to expect when I'm here. I'd like to announce, with a heavy heart, that Mrs. Johnson will not be able to teach you today and unfortunately, we couldn't get hold of Miss DiMartino as well. Suffice to say, class is cancelled."

The students rejoiced, filling the class with thunderous applause. Though that was the case for most of them, some were feeling a bit down, particularly those who liked to learn and those who liked Miss DiMartino. But neither was the case for Lincoln and Clyde, both of whom were quite shocked at the news. Lincoln felt something weird, which then intensified as a headache, it was quite similar to what he felt a couple of days ago, multiplied a few times over.

Then, everyone was silenced.

"Not! Fortunately, we were able to get hold of a former teacher who was quite enthusiastic with being able to help us. Ah, here he comes now."

Just then, Huggins pointed to the doorway, and a man came in. He was wearing a gray business suit, looking quite stylish for a teacher. On his face was a wide smile, on his head he sported a full black hair. It was long, but looks to have been kept well enough. When he got to Huggins, he greeted the principal with a firm handshake. Once Huggins was out, the new teacher turned to his new class, his smile never fading.

"Good morning to all of you," He began, "I will be your substitute teacher for today. My name is Zed Abraham. Call me Mr. Abe, if you wish. Now, shall we start?"

When the new substitute teacher first came, Lincoln felt a strange dreadful sense of sorts with his presence. That proved to no longer be the case once class began. The man, Zed Abraham or Mr. Abe as he's asked the students to call him, began their class by having the students introduce themselves to him so he could get to know them.

It was as normal as it could get; starting from Abe's left, continued by the one to that person's left all the way until the end of the row where it continues from behind, and vice versa. Though, Lincoln did space out for a moment when he was still thinking to himself about whether he should trust what he just felt. Cliche as it is, this was happening right when it was his turn to introduce himself.

"Lincoln…" Came a voice, but Lincoln didn't listen.

"Lincoln." Again, there it was. But Lincoln didn't even shift his focus.

"Lincoln!" Finally the voice shouted at him, snapping him out of his trance.

Though, maybe it was a bit too effective; when he was snapped, he immediately stood up and introduced himself, "Lincoln Loud, sir!"

His response was a bit too shocking for everyone in class. All Clyde could do was stare at him, while occasionally glancing over to everyone else in the class. Well, Mr. Abe at least did something different. He looked down on his desk and nodded, smiling at Lincoln afterwards, motioning him to sit down.

Lincoln only realized what he did the moment he was allowed to sit back down. He slumped down on his seat and kept his eyes on his desk.

"So," Clyde began, getting Lincoln's attention, "What was that?"

Lincoln sighed and ran a hand down one side of his face, "I don't know, I think I'm going crazy. Lately, things have been a bit out of control. First that thing with the rock, then the belt, and then just now… I felt like something's warning me."

"About what?"

"That's the thing, I don't know."

While Clyde was very much worried about Lincoln's mental health, he thought he couldn't really do anything. Well, he can do something, but he's just not sure if it will even work. Even then, would he really be able to tell his friends about it?

"Alright then, class, now that our little introduction session is done, why don't we get started with class?" Mr. Abe inquired, before looking around with an expression that spells uncertainty, "Well uh, I forgot to read through the schedule again so, mind telling me what's the first subject?"

After informing their teacher of the first subject of the day, class proceeded how it should have been for the last 5 minutes after the bell rang. Only thing is, it didn't feel boring. They didn't know what exactly made it feel like that, but it just doesn't. It also helps that Mr. Abe wasn't too strict with how he was teaching the class, he knew how to hold together the class, but still loosened up enough so that they never felt like they were forced to endure it rather than willingly lending their ears to the teacher.

But, just as they were becoming more and more friendly with this new teacher, the bell rang once more. It was a signal that class has come to an end, and fortunately for them, it was prep period for now. Following that was going to be PE.

The class was excused shortly after the bell rang, with Abe instructing the students to all walk out of the class in an orderly fashion. At the end of the line, he was once more greeted with the Loud boy and his friend. Before the two could step an inch closer to the doorway, Abe stopped them.

"Hey there," He began, scratching his head for a moment before asking, "So, what was your name again, sonny?"

"Um," Lincoln stuttered for a moment, he didn't expect to be stopped, "It's, it's Lincoln Loud, Mr. Abe."

"Well, nice to meet you, boy." The man held out his hand, expecting a shake from Lincoln.

Naturally, the Loud boy found this weird, but he knew if anything, he was just trying to get friendly. So, he took up the offer.

Only for him to then feel a strange tingle down his neck. He shivered as a response to such feeling, and he instinctively let go of Abe's hand. His reeling confused Clyde, but got no response from his teacher.

"You okay, buddy?" Clyde asked, for the unknown amount of times now.

"Huh?" Lincoln looked first to his friend, before calming down just enough to answer him, "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine."

"Well, you kids better go on now. Wouldn't want to waste this little window to have fun while us teachers prepare, right?"

"Y-yeah…" Lincoln said simply. "L-let's go."

Clyde watched as Lincoln excused himself, then turned to Mr. Abe, "Well, I guess I'll see you later Mr. Abe."

Mr. Abe nodded as the two remaining kids in their class walked off. He kept quiet for a moment, nodding about something. He then looked down on the palm of his right hand, where a faint blue glow was beginning to dim, before disappearing completely.

He sighed and nodded again, leaning back to his desk, "Guess I found who it went to."

End of Chapter.

* * *

Okay, this was very weird. Very hard to do. But hey, at least it's under my actual word limit. In case none of you have noticed, first chapter had an increase of like 3x from the original story. At least 3.5x, I think.

But nonetheless, that was chapter 2 of the reboot. This took me 5 days to complete. If only I can say it was 5 consecutive days.

I'm also sorry if I may have glossed over some topics for the characters to talk about. I'll be sure to address it in some way at least in future chapters.


	3. Game of Death

**Here it is folks, the last one you're gonna get before I lay off the net for a good while. It may not be perfect, it may not be good, but I leave the judgement to you fellas who are reading this and are still keeping up. Who knows, maybe once I'm done with real life business, you can expect more frequent upload times. But until then, this is all for now.**

* * *

 _Chapter 3._ _"Game of Death"_

Lincoln and Clyde walked the halls in search for their locker, hoping to get everything ready while waiting for prep time to end. They did find it shortly after, along with the gang, whom were also storing whatever items they didn't need for the upcoming subject.

The duo greeted the gang and went on to store their things as well. From there on, they would usually start planning what they should do now. But instead, they were taking things slowly.

After a few moments, Clyde thought of an icebreaker.

"So, what do you guys think about Mr. Abe?" He asked first, looking over to the others.

"Huh?" All of them went, glancing at one another before they went on to think about the question.

"I think he's pretty cool." Zach said with a shrug.

"Have to agree, guy does seem pretty sick." Rusty followed.

"Wonder where he's from, though, think I heard an accent pokin' out a bit there, but can't quite tell where I've heard it." Liam pondered.

"How 'bout you, Lincoln?" Clyde asked his friend, only to notice that he's looking up, thinking about something it would seem. "Lincoln?"

"Huh?" Lincoln looked over to his friends, before he too voiced out his thoughts. "Yeah, he seems okay."

And that was it.

Until Lincoln decided to voice his second thoughts, "So, do you think he's familiar with this place yet?"

"What?" All of them questioned, each with one brow raised.

"I mean, he didn't even know the schedule," Lincoln continued, before ending it with an assumption, "Didn't it look like he just arrived back there?"

"You're implying he might get lost, aren't you?" Liam deduced, to which Lincoln nodded at. "Relax, even if he did get lost, he'll probably get savvy about it after a while."

* * *

Meanwhile, Mr. Abe made his way around the halls, trying to look for anything that might give him clue as to where he is. He never did found anything of use, but he was eventually stopped by a couple of girls who look to be pre-schoolers, wearing sunglasses and trying to look intimidating.

Finding this to be somewhat strange, Mr. Abe raised his brows, looking around before deciding to ask them about some things.

"And I would assume you two are hall monitors?"

"Yeah, and we haven't seen your face here before." One of them, Lana, stated. Then she added, "So state your business!"

Though he believed this to be a normal day here in Royal Woods, Mr. Abe nonetheless stuttered while preparing his answer, "Well, I'm a new teacher."

After hearing that answer, the two girls pulled down their sunglasses and looked at the new teacher with great skepticism.

"Um… well, I guess I understand you twins -You two are twins, right?-" He asked, confirmed with a simple nod from the two, "Yeah, guess I understand your reactions, I did just came through earlier this morning."

Still, they were not assured. Mr. Abe scratched his head afterwards, before he thought of something. "Say… what are your surnames?"

The twins then looked at each other before answering in perfect unison, "Loud, why?"

"Ah, perfect," Mr. Abe said, clapping his hands together, "Well, I am the substitute teacher for your brother, Lincoln."

"Oh, you know Lincoln?" Lana inquired quite cheerfully, a complete 180 after how she was just moments ago. "Well, what do you need?"

With a smile and a nod, Mr. Abe quickly cut to the chase, "Since I just came in, can any of you tell me where the teacher's room is? I believe I'm lost."

* * *

After that minor setback, Abe was free to continue on with his journey again. This time however, he came to a stop after noticing something from inside a room. He approached it but had to freeze when he nearly bumped with a teacher coming out from the room.

"Oh, sorry, didn't you see there." The woman apologized, looking up towards Abe.

"No, no, it's alright," Said the substitute, before pointing towards a certain device, "But mind if I ask, what that thing is?"

The teacher looked to where the man pointed and spotted it soon after, "Ah, that. I believe the creator said that it's a weather monitoring device of sorts. I don't know, she's got a strange mind. Next thing you know-"

After a short realization, the teacher turned back to Abe and asked, "Excuse me, I don't believe we've met yet."

"Zed Abraham, substitute teacher filling in for Mrs. Johnson." Abe answered, with a slight nodding tilt of his head.

"I see, well I'm afraid I have to go, I have a short window to get some of these back in my office before next class begins." The teacher claims before walking away with a slight bow.

Abe nodded as he let some questions sink in before asking them shortly after, "Say, what's your name? You know mine, care to return the favor?"

"Oh sorry, you can just call me Shrinivas." The teacher apologized and continued on her way.

After that, Shrinivas continued on her way back to the teacher's room. While she did that, Abe listened closely to her footsteps, hopefully he could catch the distance and direction needed to take in order to get to his destination before he lost it again. He almost got all he needed before he heard somebody fake a cough from nearby.

Turning back to the doorway, he at first couldn't spot anyone, until he looked down to see a toddler. One with green sweater and glasses, sporting a messy brown hair too.

At this moment, Abe began assuming again, "I take it you're the one the teacher just talked about."

"Yes, Mrs. S is a good person, but I'm afraid she'll need some more time with books if she hopes to ever understand the things I do." She talked, the fluency of her words impressed the substitute teacher nearby. "I know who you are. I heard, at least, I was eavesdropping. So, what do you do? And why was it that you took interest in my work?"

Abe stared at the child, and looked over to the weather monitoring device, then back at her. "I don't know, guess it just reminds me of someone."

Lisa simply nodded at Abe's statement and glanced over to the device before back at the substitute, "I believe you have somewhere to be?"

Everything from Abe's mind just blurred out afterwards, prompting him to look at Lisa with a blank expression as he replied, "Yes, actually."

He then began to walk away, and right before he passed the corner, Lisa spoke to him again, saying, "If you wish to head to the teacher's room…"

* * *

Thanks to the young genius, Abe felt as if a weight had been lifted off his chest, no longer feeling like a burden that would anchor people down as he made his way to the teacher's room.

As if some sort of joke played on him by fate, he stumbled upon the principal as well as the teacher from earlier having just finished conversing it would seem, the former looking quite distressed after what he presumably heard from the kindergarten teacher.

"What's wrong?" He asked the principal as he approached them.

Huggins, and by extension Shrinivas, turned to look at Abe, before Huggins sighed.

"I'm deeply sorry for this, I wish there was another way, but could you do another favor for us?" Huggins asked of the substitute with his hands clasped together. "You see, your class will be starting PE soon-"

"But the teacher is absent? Think I can get that much from this." Abe assumed once more, which was confirmed with a nod.

"What do you say?"

Abe sighed and leaned against a wall close to a window, "That depends man, I mean…"

Before another word could be uttered, Abe looked outside and noticed something strange in the sky. Before he could react further to it, he thought of the others and since he didn't want to make them worried, he calmly brought up his hand to scratch his head and run it down the side of his face.

As he did that, he scanned the skies outside, and he spotted among the clouds, a plethora of colors flashing dimly but just visible enough for him to see. He then tried to stabilize his breathing after it picked up its pace. Thinking of how he should be able to work his way around what he thinks is inevitable, he thought of the upcoming subject again.

" _PE… Phys Ed… Physical Education._ " He repeated in his thoughts and in a small whisper. At that moment, his face seemed to have lit up a bit and his mind clear on what he can do. Turning around to the principal, he claims, "Alright, I'll do it."

The principal then breathed a sigh of relief, thankful of Abe's help.

All that thinking happened in only several real time seconds.

* * *

Once PE started, everyone was asked to do a few laps around the court first. After of course, settling down after they found out that Mr. Abe will be taking care of them again. Naturally, they did it without much question.

"Strange that Mr. Abe's taking over class again, huh?" Clyde said between heavy breaths, "Well, I'm not complaining, though."

Lincoln however, didn't reply. In fact, he had been quiet ever since they started their laps. He was thinking of something, it bothered him since prep time, near the end of it. He swore he could see a vision flash in his mind, one looking what seems to be the sky.

It's a good thing Clyde was more focused on finishing their laps as that meant he wouldn't be noticed when he's having these thoughts. However, he would come to a stop soon enough when he heard the whistle blow, a signal letting them know that it's time for the main event.

The students all gathered up in front of Mr. Abe, who looked over at everyone and made a headcount of them all, making sure that they're all here. Once he was done with that, he nodded and smiled, ready to announce the game that they will be playing.

"Alright, you lots know what business we're in now, right?" He began, receiving nods and some verbal confirmations from his students, "So, how about we play some dodgeball?"

It took some time for the info to sink in, and when it did, Abe's proposal were met with mixed reception from the crowd before him. Many were protesting against decision, some seemed to get pumped up and others didn't really voice out their opinions.

"Wait please, you gotta think about it, most of us aren't even good at dodgeball!" Rusty pleaded.

"Well how are you gonna get better at it if you don't play it?" Abe playfully asked, smirking as he did so.

"Oh gosh, I hope I can keep up this time, haven't prepared enough." Liam, one of the neutral ones, quietly said to himself.

"Um, mind if I sit this one out?" Zach began, trying to excuse himself if possible, "You see, I slept during prep time so I'm not sure if I'm fully awake yet." He finished with a chuckle.

"What better way to kick yourself back into high gear than with a game like dodgeball? I assure you, you'll be back to full strength once the thrill of the game kicks in!"

Abe's cheerful demeanor did not do well with the others who also weren't fond of dodgeball. But before they could protest any further, Abe ordered everyone to start lining up on one side. It was time to assemble the teams and their members.

Abe wasted no time in picking out the first team's members; those being the kids he just talked to, as well as Lincoln and Clyde. It didn't take long for him to hit a dead end.

"Now, who should be your sixth member?" He pondered, eyeing out everyone. He noticed one boy who can't seem to care less about the whole thing, and feeling mischievous, he picked him out, "You there, you're sixth."

"Chandler?" Lincoln and the gang exclaimed, shocked at Mr. Abe's decision.

"Now, now, let's not waste anymore time!" Abe said, clapping his hands as he signaled to the boy to quickly come over.

Chandler did not even have any say in this, and now, before he knew it, he was part of the team. Much to his dismay.

"You guys better not make me lose." The red-haired boy sternly stated to the others.

"I'm really not sure if we can even trust him." Rusty whispered to the others.

"I don't know, maybe he can actually help us win?" Clyde thought.

"In any case, let's just give the old fella' a chance." Liam suggested, before they all broke from the group huddle.

By then, Abe had finished picking out the opposing team, and there was only room for one more, and he knew just who to pick.

"Alright, a little twist to the usual things, I'll be their sixth."

The participating students were shocked and it continued in the form of silence as they moved on to the court where Abe decided to start explaining the rules.

"Okay, since you're all familiar with the rules, I'd like to say that everything remains the same," Abe cleared up, before adding his own little twist, "Only exception is that any contact counts, but please, do try to avoid the face still. If possible, try catching the ball if you're fast enough."

Lincoln couldn't help but feel as if 's last statement was directed towards him.

The players all walked into the ring that was set. One side was nervous, quite possible in causing a breakdown on them all except for one. The other, they were feeling cocky. Except for one of them.

With everyone on the ring, Abe raised his hand, and a whistle in his mouth. He did a quick slicing motion downwards as he blew the whistle, signaling the start of the match.

Immediately, the two players at the center whom both had the ball in their hands fought for it. Chandler was the one fighting, and he won.

Wasting no time, Chandler threw the ball towards the closest person and before he knew it, it was caught. It was in Abe's hand, he had intercepted it within an arm's length from the target's head. After relaxing a bit, Abe bounced the ball in his hand, before letting the boy next to him have it.

From there on, it got pretty standard, one side threw the ball when they had it and the others dodged. In Lincoln and Clyde's case, they were dodging more than they are trying to fight back.

Chandler, not wanting to have anyone in their team doing half of the required work, shouted over to them, "Hey, mind if you guys start fighting back instead of just avoiding?"

"Easy for you to say!" Lincoln said, "But we're really not great at all in this game!"

"Yeah, we only got in because well, teacher's orders!" Clyde added.

"Guys, I got it!" Rusty said, an idea popped in his head, "Line up behind me!"

The others wanted to question his idea, but between that which puts them at risk of being targets, or actually doing something and to keep moving, it was clear which one they did.

Lining up behind Rusty, the others were then ordered to follow his lead, which they all did clumsily as they dodged one ball after another. That's right, one after another. As they went on, Mr. Abe seemed to have increased the amount of available balls up to three at a time.

Chandler, who wasn't part of Rusty's group, was agitated, "What are you guys doing? You want to risk being a bigger target?"

"Trust me, man, this formation's gonna be a lifesaver one day!" Rusty claims.

The rest of the team managed to last a few more minutes with the formation, dodging one ball after another. But that's not to say everything is up to Chandler, whenever possible, one of them will try to run over to a stray ball that Chandler could not get to in time. Their shots would usually require the person in front of the thrower to duck as they needed to sustain the formation.

After a few more evasion, the boys' movement began to sync up better than before, this allowed for a greater chance of moving away from a throw.

"Hey, think I'm getting used to this!" Zach spoke on it first.

"Golly, we're slitherin' around the court like a snake!" Liam exclaimed, "How did you think of this? Got a name for it?"

As they dodged more, Rusty gave it a thought, but not too much that his focus on the game is broken. He then recalled what Liam said, "That's it! Let's call it, The Snake Formation!"

The others then gasped in amazement at the name, despite its simplicity, they were all still very impressed with it.

Needless to say, this wouldn't last long, and soon the formation's effectiveness will begin to deteriorate.

One ball they dodged was just close enough for Lincoln to get over to and grab, and he did. Once he was back in the line, he threw it over to the opposing side, hoping for it to hit someone. Instead, Mr. Abe had caught it.

Because of the sudden burst of panic they had, they weren't able to keep themselves in order with the formation and they dodged more clumsily than when they first formed it.

Unfortunately, their luck had run out when Zach was unable to keep up with a jump to the side from a ball and this resulted with him being hit on the side which he tried to block himself from in vain. Thus, marking the first elimination since the game started.

"Zach!" The gang exclaimed, the formation was now broken.

The boy then sighed as he got up where he then made his way out. Along the way, he looked back to his teammates and shouted, "Sorry guys!"

The rest of them then looked over at each other. Chandler groaned in annoyance, and picked up the nearby ball since nobody seemed to bother picking it up. Taking aim, he retaliates by throwing it towards that person. It was a hit.

The others all gasped, astonished at what just happened. Then they remembered, now is not the time to stand around, it was time to pay back for the opposing team had done.

Despite not expecting to hit anyone, Rusty was able to hit one. Unsurprisingly too, he was very impressed by this, by himself at being able to score one for the team.

"Oh my gosh, I did it! I got one!" He exclaimed, one last time for the team.

As if on cue, he was immediately taken out with a hit to the stomach, the force and shock of which threw him off-balance and landed him on his butt, initially feeling confused and later looking down in embarrassment. He quickly got to his feet afterwards and made his way off the court to the pavilion to join Zach. There, he didn't even say anything.

"Ugh," Chandler scoffed without even looking at Rusty, "This is what happens when you get carried away!"

Zach looked back at forth at him and the gang back on the court, before giving Rusty a pat on the back, "Don't worry, at least you did good still."

Hearing his friends words, Rusty sighed and looked up, still feeling a bit down. However, he then gave it some thought, and realized that Zach was only trying to make him feel better. Smiling, he looked over to him, "Hey, yeah, thanks man."

Nodding, Zach looked back at the others and cupped his mouth, "You can do it, guys!"

"Yeah!" Rusty joined in, "Show them who's boss!"

Liam, who had been looking at them, felt happy that his two other friends are taking their eliminations well. That was all it took for him to prepare himself on the game again.

"Why even hang out with those guys?" Chandler asked, before rolling away from an incoming ball, which he then picked up and threw back at the opponents.

"What? Oh-" Liam said, before doing the same, except he only got to pick up the ball before he stopped to answer Chandler, "Why wouldn't I be? They're my friends, I've known them for quite a while now."

Liam then threw the ball in hands at one of the opposing members, and scored one more for the team. He then turned to Chandler and shrugged.

Surprised at that, Chandler kept quiet for a brief moment before speaking up, "You know that's not what I meant."

One thing the boy didn't realize was that there was yet another incoming ball heading towards him, and he only noticed it once it was too late. But instead of him, Liam was instead taken out by it. He had taken a bullet for the boy.

"I know, but sometimes there's just some things in life that you don't really question." Liam said as he made his way out of the ring, turning to his team one last time before joining Zach and Rusty, both of which he fist pumped with.

It was now a 3 vs 3.

Chandler eyed two of his remaining teammates, "You two," he called, prompting them to look at him. "Don't mess this up."

Lincoln and Clyde then lanced over at each other and back at their opponents. At that moment, they all noticed something, Mr. Abe had gotten from a relaxed posture to one that gave the impression that he's going to take a more active role in the game now.

Lincoln then thought about his friends and how they too did everything they could before they were taken out. Maybe it's high time he gives it his all as well.

"Alright Clyde, let's repay the gang for what they've done for us." Lincoln proclaimed to his friend.

"Yeah, I was thinking about that too." Clyde replied, taking a deep breath.

"Here it comes!" Lincoln warned.

Both of them jumped away, with Chandler picking up the ball that was thrown and using it to throw it back at their opponents, just barely missing the person he targeted.

Only at this point did Lincoln felt something weird; it's nothing like what he felt previously, but to him the throw just then looked like it had slowed down considerably to the point where he should be able to casually sidestep it no matter how close it had gotten to him.

He then noticed a ball roll close to him. Quickly grabbing it, he aimed at Mr. Abe in hopes of dropping the opponent's morale and threw it hard as he could. Even in his eyes it seemed hard to register that there was an incoming ball.

Abe might as well not be trying at all with how almost effortlessly he looked over to the ball, and he too had one in his hands. Although he did express some levels of surprise and his following action seemed like it was just done out of the blue. He threw the ball in his hands towards the one that was heading for him. The collision stopped both, and stunned everyone.

Lincoln watched with great shock and a hint of terror in his face. So, this is who they were facing.

One of them did recover quickly. Chandler wanted to take this chance and picked up one of the balls that had rolled past the center line and targeted the farthest target from Abe and successfully landed the hit.

Clyde dodged a stray ball that was clumsily thrown after Chandler's surprise attack. He looked over to it and grabbed it, launching it at the thrower and eliminating Mr. Abe's last support, leaving him as their last opponent.

The three then regrouped close to the center of their side, all of them were starting to get exhausted, more so on Chandler's part.

"Alright," The red-haired boy began, "This should be easy."

Lincoln and Clyde concurred with a nod of their head. Though, Lincoln was having some doubts.

Coincidentally, two of the balls that were thrown at the opposing sides rolled over to theirs and that should mean they have the advantage. Should.

Lincoln and Chandler stepped up and picked up the balls, ran off to both ends of their sides and threw them at Mr. Abe.

Knowing well that he is the only target for them left, Abe had been scanning the area and he is also well aware that he has to avoid two incoming projectiles. Though, he feels that he needs to keep an eye on Lincoln more than the other two.

Stepping backwards, he dodged the ball thrown by Lincoln first before extending his arm to grab the one from Chandler. After that, he made quick work of the boy, casually tossing it down where it then bounced off towards him.

Chandler couldn't even react properly to that, he was silent, unmoving. After a few more seconds, he held his chest where the ball had struck him. Then he finally hissed softly in response to the pain. He took one last glance at Abe before walking away.

Clyde watched as Chandler made his way off the ring and onto the pavilion, then he turned to Lincoln, who was watching Mr. Abe intently.

Lincoln kept quiet, he knew that he needed a plan in order to even get close to Mr. Abe, but would he be able to make one in time? That was what worried him.

Abe then walked over to two of the balls in his side and tossed them over to Lincoln and Clyde, "Let's try and make this a bit more fair, 'aight?"

Lincoln looked at him, and at the ball in front of him. Slowly walking towards it, he crouched down and picked it up, ready to try and counter Mr. Abe should he make his move.

Clyde then does the same, before moving away from Mr. Abe, fearing that being too close might not do him any good.

Abe looked back and forth at the two remaining boys that serves as his opponents, he had just grabbed the remaining ball on his side. He calmed himself down and reeled one arm back, making it look like he's about to throw the ball in his hand. This caused the two boys to panic, especially Clyde, who instead of preparing himself to move away, launched the ball in his hand.

Abe easily saw through this, and tossed his ball up in an arc, distracting Clyde from his next move. He caught the projectile and once the distraction passed a certain height, Clyde's eyes was on him, and it was too late. He threw the ball and took Clyde out with it.

Clyde staggered backwards with a loud, "Oof!" and looked at Lincoln with a weak apologetic smile.

Lincoln sighed and nodded at Clyde, returning his focus back on the game as his friend walks out.

The Loud boy quickly made his throw and Abe quickly retaliated, and there, Lincoln began to see that there's definitely something wrong. He was dodging Abe's attacks with less effort than he thought he'd need to exert.

Even the crowd was surprised. Nobody was sure whether they were playing dodgeball or tennis as both sides were just as quick to return as they were quick to serve their attacks. A lot of them were having trouble trying to keep up with the game, and Clyde, he had to look away at one point due to his motion sickness.

While that might be good and all, Lincoln was beginning to tire himself out. He didn't think that he'd be the last one to stand against Mr. Abe, and to also think that he'd start seeing through his attacks as well.

Wait, what?

Exactly, Lincoln was starting to find it easier to keep up with Mr. Abe, who in turn was starting to get tired as well; his eyes were wide, as if he's trying his best not to blink in case Lincoln made his move.

Looking at a nearby ball, Lincoln felt his brain go on overdrive. Then, he got it, he got a plan. But for him to execute this plan, he'd need all three balls, and two of them are closer to Mr. Abe.

Now that he's got his plans jotted in his mind, Lincoln ran over to that nearby ball and rolled away when Mr. Abe threw one at him. Once he's got the second ball on his side, he used one to throw at his teacher, which forced him to let go of the one in his hands by tossing it upwards and grabbing the one heading straight towards him.

It's time for the next step, Lincoln stepped away from the incoming ball, knowing well by now that it's only a distraction and picked up the one Abe threw just moments ago. Once he got the ball, Abe seemed ready to throw the one he caught and he did, which Lincoln stopped mid-air by tossing the one in his hands.

Thus, everything was in his favor now. He picked up one ball and bounced it off the floorboards for a brief moment before tossing it upwards much in the same manner he did to Clyde, only with a bit more force, then he ran over to pick up the second ball he needed. This seemed to lull Abe in a sense of security as he thought of catching the ball from above.

Once Lincoln had the second ball, Abe too had caught the first one. Before the teacher could even refocus on the game, he threw the one he had on the floor as if he knew where it would bounce off to, and hit the ball in Abe's hands before he could ready himself to throw it.

Almost immediately, Lincoln picked up the last one, and threw it straight at his face, unintentionally. The ball hit, Abe's head was slightly tilted backwards, and the court was silent.

Lincoln was still in throwing position, and only then did he realize what he just did. He hit his own teacher in the face. Worried at the thought of being disqualified, he started panicking, until he heard a small laugh.

Looking over to Mr. Abe, Lincoln as well as the whole class was confused. Why?

Abe continued to laugh while held his nose, readjusting himself to a more relaxed pose. From there on, he stopped laughing and looked at Lincoln, slowly clapping his hands. Which got faster as he went on.

The class realized what this meant and clapped for Lincoln, cheering him for his victory, thunderous applause fills the auditorium. All except for one kid, who was still shocked at this.

"Oh ho, alright!" Liam shouted.

"Way to go, Lincoln!" Zach followed.

"That was amazing!" Rusty complimented.

"You did it, buddy!" Clyde informed his friend, who still haven't gotten the message it seems.

Lincoln's eyes widened as the realization sank in, he won. Not once has he ever expected to win this game, which means he didn't really know how to react to all this. Laugh as he might at the thought, but that still won't help him.

Before he knew it, he was being hoisted up his teammates' shoulders, all still cheering for him.

They then saw Mr. Abe approach them. Lincoln was set down and he was now facing their teacher again. He was then offered a handshake, which he gladly took up.

But just then, the intercom sounded, "Attention, Mr. Abraham, the principal wants to see you in his office."

Abe sighed after hearing that and looked back at Lincoln and the others, "Oopsie, guess I'm in trouble."

"Sorry for hitting your face, Mr. Abe." Lincoln apologized, scratching the back of his head.

"Don't worry about it, but I suggest you guys get back to class quick."

The class then happily agreed to their teacher's suggestion and went on to change back into their usual clothes and return to class. Lincoln stopped just outside the path leading to the changing rooms and looked at the exit, he dismissed this feeling he had in hopes that it was nothing.

* * *

Meanwhile, Abe walked down the halls, with ease this time as he memorized the steps he took to get here.

He tried to calm his mind, but still, he felt the need to clutch his stomach tightly in order to try and suppress this feeling of dread. He wants to feel at ease, knowing that he's done something that should be able to help them.

Eventually, he did arrive at the door leading to Huggins' office. Bracing himself, he entered it and saw the principal sitting in his chair. A few steps in, he stopped, and looked to his left, now knowing why he was asked to come here. There, stood a man, who soon turned to him with a smirk.

Abe tried to shake off his fears and focus more on what needed to be said. So, he spoke up first, "Alright, what is it you want?"

* * *

Having changed back into their regular clothes, the students returned to class and waited for Mr. Abe there. Chat, play around a bit, they did everything they could in order to pass the time while their teacher deals with something.

While they waited however, Lincoln was starting to feel uneasy. He was moving around uncomfortably in his seat, and Clyde took notice of this.

"You feeling good, buddy?" He asked.

"Yeah, think I'm gonna wash my face up a bit." Lincoln replied.

"Alright, don't take too long."

With a nod, Lincoln got off from his seat and out of the class, it's not like anyone will notice or reprimand him for it since they're all busy with each other.

* * *

"You'd best be ready, Zed." The visitor said.

"I'm always ready." Claimed Abe, leaned against a wall, looking battered.

"But are these people?"

"I'll see to it that they are all safe."

After his proclamation, Zed pushed himself from the wall and turned to where the visitor was, and instead of a man, there now stood a monstrous creature in his place. It was nearly the height of the door and had a very rocky texture on its body. The overall shape was human-like, and it wore a strange clothing that was familiar yet alien. Next to this monster, was an unconscious Huggins, who weakly moaned in pain.

The monster then looked up and gave a malicious grin to Zed, who was horrified at this, as if he knew what it meant.

"It was nice meeting you again." It said once more.

"I don't share your sentiments, Barzal."

The monster, Barzal, was then engulfed in a bright flash of crimson light, which Zed simply shut his eyes from. When he opened his eyes again, no longer was the creature there.

Zed's breathing became erratic and he finally found it in himself to move, making his way to the microphone in order to warn everyone.

"Attention, this is… that new substitute teacher, and I want everyone to make their way to the auditorium right now!" He yelled into the microphone.

After that, the secretary came in, looking terrified beyond words and saw Zed carrying Huggins over his shoulder. He turned to her, and gave her quite a scare.

"Quickly, get everyone out." He ordered.

* * *

Lincoln was just out of the restroom when the announcement was made and not far from where he is, he spotted Lucy just wandering around. He wasn't sure how to react to that announcement and made his way to his younger sister, see if he can get her thoughts on it.

"Hey, Luce, what are you doing?" He asked.

"Nothing, I'm just out here because the spirits told me that I should be somewhat safe if I'm not in class."

"Is it because of the announcement?"

"No, I was here long before that."

Lincoln was quiet afterwards, trying to think of a way to follow up to that, "Have you been feeling anything lately?"

"Sometimes, why?" The goth inquired.

"Nothing, just that… lately I've been-"

Just then, there was a loud boom, and everything shook. The walls cracked and crumbled slightly, lockers, lamps and other items moved or fell from their place. Lincoln and Lucy were both on the ground, their balance had been broken.

Lincoln's legs shook, and he tried to get up, but his arms wobbled. He was sweating bullets, and his heartbeat got faster, his breathing improper. Somewhere around the corner, where the halls lead to his class, he could see a cloud of dust. With a sudden burst of adrenaline, he picked himself from the floor and helped Lucy up, before making their way to that direction.

The further they went in, the worse the damage actually looked. Then, they arrived at Lincoln's class where nearly everyone was seriously injured. From the front, many had been knocked out, then some in the middle were crying or laid down motionless, traumatized. Then the ones at the back, such as Clyde and the gang, they were injured, but noticeably lessened.

Clyde had been tending to the ones around the middle, while some others helped out those who had received the worst injuries. Eventually Clyde noticed Lincoln, who had been petrified, simply looking around at what he was seeing.

Lincoln did snapped out of it when he felt Lucy frantically tapping his shoulder. Looking back, he saw that Lucy was choking from her words, "What is it?" He asked, his worries increasing.

"We need to find the others!" The goth finally spat out her words.

The realization hit him like a speeding truck, and his legs felt weak again, he nearly fell to the ground, had it not been for Lucy and soon after, Clyde, who helped him regain his balance.

"What is it?" Asked his friend.

"I-I…" Stuttered the Loud boy, before he finally regained the strength to say it after shaking his head…

"I need to find my sisters!"

 _End of chapter_

* * *

Definitely one of the harder chapters to finish. Though, I believe it was less challenging than chapter 2. In this one, I only lacked motivation to keep going but at least I knew what to do.

Not to mention is the fact that this final version is a rewrite. The original one almost broke through 10,000 words.


	4. First of the Week

**Author's Notes: This one here is a temporary replacement. What happens here won't impact the next chapter in any notable manner, I just thought that I'd try for one that involves a lot more of me just doing it and having fun in the process. Much like the previous version, I did it in a much more casual manner too, being more sincere with what I want to put in instead of doing some super-heavy plan for every minute detail. I can always worry about those later when I actually have to figure out how things go from one point to the next.**

 **Without further ado, let's jump in to the story, shall we?**

 _Chapter 4. First of the week_

Lincoln and Lucy had been navigating the wrecked hallways of their school for a good amount of time by now, with some backtracking whenever they encountered a blockade. It wouldn't have been too bad, but they only had so much energy to handle them. Not to mention, Lincoln was on the verge of panic.

All these time, they were searching for their sisters and so far, nothing.

Though tired, Lincoln refused to let it slow him down. The same however, could not be said for poor Lucy who was struggling to keep up.

Eventually they stumbled upon another blockade, stopping both of them. While this meant Lucy could catch her breath, it was yet another impediment to Lincoln.

The boy held his head and his desire to groan in frustration, coming out only as a hiss.

"Come on, Lucy, we gotta keep going!" Lincoln ordered.

"Wait!" Lucy held out her hand, prompting the boy to turn to her.

"W-what is it?"

"Slow down, I know you're worried, I am too." Lucy said. She then shrugged with her head tilted as she asked, "But don't you think it'll be useless if we're both too tired to help when we do find them?"

Lincoln wanted to retort, but found too much sense in his sister's words. His posture relaxed a bit, and he sighed as he placed a hand on his forehead.

"I guess you're right..."

It was then silent for both of them. Lincoln became occupied in his mind, thinking where did it all went wrong. Lucy remained silent, rubbing the back of one hand with the other.

Lincoln then thought that maybe he has been pushing himself too far. Now, his mind had become so confused that he can hear the voices of his younger sisters, among many others, calling out for help.

Wait...

Lincoln tried focusing his ears on something, an action which Lucy confusedly watch him carry out.

"What are you-"

"Hang on, did you hear that?"

The two kept quiet, looking around as it finally came again.

"Is anybody out there?" A voice weakly called, raspy. It came from the blockade nearby.

"Lola!?" Both of them said, leaning against the wall of said blockade.

* * *

The twins were huddled up together, seated on the dirty, cold floor. They watched all around them as students of their age were scattered all around. There were others slightly older than them, and then there are the kindergartners.

Ranging from toddlers and some just under the twins age, the kindergartners were gathered around their teacher, Mrs. Shrinivas.

The injured teacher was being tended to by one of her own students, resident scientist, Lisa Loud. But at this time, she's a temporary medic providing assistance to the school's own Nurse Patti, who was tending to the others.

One of those she tended to was Lola. Her right arm was bandaged.

Back with Lisa, she had just finished bandaging the last of her teacher's wounds. Using only limited and some makeshift items, she had performed what is generally, if not universally, considered impossible for someone her age.

It was at this point where they all heard something from outside.

Being the ones closest to the wall, the twins could just barely make out the voices of Lincoln and Lucy.

They glanced at each other for a moment, before jumping up from where they were and started pounding on the wall.

"Lincoln!?" Lana called out.

"Please, can you hear us!? Is anybody out there!?" Lola said with a raspy and shaky voice.

Then, from the other side, they heard them again.

"Lola!?"

Both the twins' faces lit up, they smiled and spoke up, "Can you help us!?"

Outside, Lincoln was beginning to panic as he finally understood why they never bumped into each other at all.

"Wait right there!" He told, moving away before tackling the wall. The result was a surge of pain in his shoulder and the possibility of dislocation.

Instead of stopping to find a way around, Lincoln did what his sisters never expected him to do; he backed away and repeated his actions twice before he began to angrily slam his fists on the wall.

"Move, you darn rocks!" Shouted the boy.

"Lincoln, calm down!" Lucy begged.

"I can't just leave them!" Lincoln barked, without even sparing so much as a passing glance.

"But..."

"I can't..." Lincoln said somberly, "Lori and the others are also still out there, I want to worry about them, too. But I can't do anything about them now, can I? At the very least, I should help you guys first."

"Lincoln..." Lucy softly said.

While touched, much like her older sisters, Lisa couldn't exactly agree to the idea of Lincoln putting others way before himself. If anything, they should all make it out of this together.

Again, silence befell the siblings.

"Lincoln? Lucy?" Came Clyde's voice.

Turning around, Lincoln felt the winds of change as he got up.

"Clyde!" Smiled the Loud boy.

"What's going on?" Rusty said, coming into view.

Following him were the rest of the class, having finally caught up with the Loud siblings.

"You guys are just in time!" Lincoln stated, the others glanced at one another.

"What are you talking about?" Rusty asked.

Clyde however, had been eyeing the blockade behind his friend, becoming occupied in his own mind before finally remembering what his friend had set out for in the first place.

With a gasp, Clyde pointed at the blockade, "Wait, are they trapped in there!?"

Lincoln nodded.

"Well what are waiting for?" Clyde declared, running past Lincoln. He looked around and turned to his friend, asking, "Is there anything we can use to move these rocks?"

Lincoln stuttered as he too, scanned around before something caught his eye. He went over to it and picked it up. "This should be able to help!" He claimed, showing a reinforcement rod to his friend.

"Well it's the best we got, let's go!" Clyde went with it.

The two boys looked for a place to slip the rod under and found one in seconds. Sliding the rod between two rocks, they began pushing down on it, letting out grunts of exertion. When no progress was being made, Lucy joined in, and then the rest of the gang.

While the twins and many others hoped for their success, Lisa, having moved closer to the aforementioned twins, did not share her sisters' and fellow classmates' sentiments.

" I don't think that will work," Lisa shook her head, "Under such massive weight, I doubt even a lever mechanism would be capable of budging these rocks. Much less with a crude method of execution."

"It's not wrong to hope, isn't it?" Lola retorted, clearly trying her best to stay optimistic.

"Yeah, we'll get you guys out, no matter what!" Lincoln proclaimed, grunting as he continued to push.

Suddenly...

"What's going on here?" Came a man's voice.

From inside, all the sisters could hear was a gasp, followed by chatters. Then silence.

Although faintly, they could hear the newcomer say, "Alright then, step aside."

Then the rod was taken out before it was relocated to a different spot. Tension filled the air as nothing else happened afterwards.

It was only for a few seconds, but it still felt unnerving.

The silence was broken when a loud yell was heard, accompanied soon by the sounds of the rocks shifting ever so slightly. That was the plan.

With the targeted rock out of place, it rolled away, by at least a meter away from Lincoln's sisters.

Then they heard the sound of clanking as the rod was discarded.

Standing in the newly made pathway was the newcomer, Lincoln's substitute teacher, Mr. Abe.

"Alright, everyone, let's go in and help them out!" He ordered, looking back to his students.

Without further ado, they did as they were asked to. At least by those who weren't injured.

Being the closest, Lincoln rushed in first, immediately gathering his sisters into a hug. Lucy joined in moments later.

They broke off from the hug after several seconds. Lincoln looked over to every single one of his sisters who were present.

He sighed and spoke up, "I'm really glad you guys are okay."

He smiled as he finished, and so did his sisters. He then looked at Mr. Abe, who went over to the unconscious Shrinivas, with Nurse Patti confusedly looking at him.

"Who are you?" Asked the nurse.

Abe looked over to the nurse, "Hm? Oh-"

"That's Mr. Abe, he's our substitute teacher." Lincoln explained.

Nurse Patti nodded as Abe crouched down next to the kindergarten teacher and put her arm over his shoulder, helping her up.

"Mr. Abe?" Lucy called, prompting the man to look at her with an expectant look. "Thank you for helping us."

Smiling, Abe nodded. He looked at the rest of the students, some were already being led out, but some looked around cautiously, paranoid over something.

"So uh," Abe began, "What happened here?"

Lisa adjusted her glasses and started, "Well-"

"It was like a ghost!" Abe raised an eyebrow.

"It broke through the walls!" Both eyebrows were raised.

"It had a red six-pointed shape on its face!" The teacher's eyes widened.

"What?" Lincoln said, confused as to what was said.

Lisa sighed and continued, "Strange as it may sound, their words are not to be dismissed. Everything they said were true. It bore a white complexion, at least, that's all we could see of it when it moved like a blur after it entered the school by destroying a wall. Sadly, while it would have made our escape easier, the creature proved to be a serious threat."

Abe then asked Nurse Patti to take over in helping Shrinivas up, moving to the other end of the blockade, all eyes were on him.

Lincoln asked one last thing, "So, about the six-point shape?"

"Yes, it had on its face, a series of rings bearing the colors red, black, and yellow. Centered around it, was a red hexagon."

"Then you guys better get going now." Abe worriedly requested, clutching his stomach.

Confused, and with some hints of anxiety, Lincoln asked, "What?"

Right before the evacuation was reaching it's end, something burst from above, kicking up clouds of smoke which began clearing up soon. Miraculously, the ceiling didn't gave way, but that was besides the point. Something, just came through.

Standing with its back hunched, facing towards the substitute teacher, was a creature that resembled Lisa's description. There were some missing details; on its wrists and ankles were purple hexagonal cuffs. On the back of its head was a bony crest.

They couldn't see the rest of it, but they saw Abe's reaction towards the creature. Or rather, a lack thereof.

There was something else that at the moment, only Lincoln noticed; the man was waving his hand at them. Or, signaling them to get out.

Lincoln notified the others of it, and motioned them to follow along with the teacher's order.

The evacuation continued quietly, that was until the creature finally moved to look at the person in front of it.

Abe's expression intensified, and he signaled for the others to pick up the pace.

For a very brief moment, Abe saw the creature react to the sounds behind it. Those of the students as they rushed to get out. Lincoln noticed this as well.

In order to counteract this, Abe took one step forward, easily regaining the monster's attention.

The anxiety kept growing from this point onwards. So much so, that one of the students tripped over a rock, falling onto the floor. Panic ensued when the creature finally turned around, screeching as it faced the students.

It began moving towards them, and screams filled the area.

Abe, having been distracted earlier by the trip, returned focus shortly after the creature moved. It almost blurred, but before it reached full speed, it stopped.

The creature noticed this very quickly as it looked down to see Abe holding on tightly on one of its legs. Trying to break free, it jerked its leg around, causing discomfort on what's holding it down.

The others also saw this, and the panic from earlier had yet to subside.

"Go! I'll hold it off!" Abe shouted, dragging them back to reality.

Incapable of voicing the order again, Lincoln simply turned to the others, motioning violently for them to go.

They did, all of them, successfully escaping their closest encounter with the creature so far.

The creature screeched angrily, finally resorting to stomping the man on his back. A few more ensured its freedom as it was finally released. But as opposed to what it intended before, it now had its 'eyes' on the man that held it down, having recovered well from its attacks.

Outside, everyone panickedly looked on as the two went out of their line of sight, away from their exit.

"What's he doing!?" Nurse Patti questioned.

Naturally, nobody was capable of giving an answer. They all simply watched on, unmoving as all they could hear were Abe's grunts, some screeches and the sounds of impact.

Lisa's mind nearly went haywire as she processed what in the world just happened. She noticed it when nobody did, and she began to doubt. One that was directed towards the teacher.

She looked over to Lincoln and saw him staring on, his head moved as the fight continued from the inside. His head moved, whenever sounds came from inside.

" _Is he tracking the fight? From outside?_ " She asked herself in her thoughts.

"What do we do?" Clyde asked first, showing concerns towards the condition of their teacher.

Lincoln gulped down his fears and spoke up, although a little shaky, "We should help him!"

"How?" Was the question many asked him.

"We're going to bury it." Lincoln declared.

"Nonsense," Lisa shook her head, looking at her brother, "You saw what that thing can do. Simply entombing it under a rubble would not suffice against it."

The others interjected, expressing signs of frustration and disappointment.

"But..." Lisa added, silencing everyone, "If we were to do this correctly, then the combined mass of the rocks coupled with what little kinetic energy they will generate, then it's quite possible. If it means giving us just enough time, then it's our best choice."

Lincoln smiled after hearing his sister's words. Although they were said under a tone of uncertainty, it was enough for him to go by.

As for the plan itself, Lincoln was somehow able to guess where they should execute it on. But first, he ran to the opening and looked inside.

Greeting him was quite a sight; Abe dodged with noticeable effort, the attacks from the creature. Once it reached a certain level of intensity in its attacks, that was Abe moved in to retaliate, delivering multiple light strikes on the creatures back before it could recover from its self-induced stagger.

Not much damage was dealt, but it caused enough discomfort on the creature for him to regain some distance from it.

He did notice however, that Abe himself wasn't really doing all that well. In that short moment he was outside, his teacher suffered some bruises and received slash marks from the creature's lightly clawed hands.

And all this happened in a few seconds. Well past 3, but just under 7.

The creature caught up easily, taking advantage of Abe's noticeably lesser stamina and closed the gap between the two, throwing an unintentional palm strike which pushed the teacher onto the wall behind where it pinned him to.

"Mr. Abe!" Lincoln worriedly shouted, diverting attention to himself.

When the creature set its eyes on him, he felt like he was frozen in place. Cold sweat ran down the side of his face as the creature's lifeless gaze was firmly settled on him.

Abe in turn, exploited this by pushing away the creature's arms to break its guard and crouched down to just above waist level and tackling the creature into a wall on the opposite end, which snapped Lincoln out of his fearful trance.

Lincoln flinched at the sound of the impact and looked over to Abe who, with where he positioned himself, was just visible to those outside.

"What are you doing!?" Questioned the substitute teacher.

"I want to help!" Lincoln stated.

"What?" Abe raised an eyebrow, before grunting as the creature brought down its fists on his back.

"Ram that thing into the wall!" Lincoln requested, motioning it by moving a fist towards his other hand.

"Are you sure this will work?"

"Trust me!"

Abe's eyes widened, although his face remained somewhat neutral. He looked around before making up his mind.

"Alright," He nodded, "Let's give it a shot!"

Lincoln pumped his fist, saying, "Yes! Wait for my signal!", and nodded as his teacher gave him a trusting smile, before making his way out.

Once he was out, he was greeted by Clyde.

"Well? What now?" He expectantly looked at Lincoln.

"Now we get into position!" Replied the Loud boy.

* * *

Back inside, Abe was beginning to lose his grip on the creature as it took hold of his coat and began thrashing around.

Right before his luck ran out, Abe heard the sound of metal rubbing against the rocks. Initially confused, he soon realized what Lincoln planned.

Sighing, he quietly said, "Well, I agreed to this."

Planting his feet firmly on the floor, he tackled the creature again to momentarily daze it. It sort of worked, but considered it to be good enough as he then backed away by several steps.

The creature recovered and rushed towards him, forcing him to continuously dodge its attacks.

He managed to align himself between the creature and the wall, backing away with each evasion.

"Now!" Came Lincoln's signal.

Bringing his focus solely on the creature, Abe was able to successfully dodge another attack, a violent swipe which broke its own balance and allowing Abe to slither behind it.

Wasting no time, Abe ran full speed towards the creature and managed to slam it onto the wall, destabilizing it just enough for Lincoln, with the help of his sisters and friends, to push down on the rod and shift the rocks to cause a mini avalanche on the creature.

When the rocks came falling down, Abe stepped away just in time as the creature was buried under the mass of rubble from above it.

Miraculously, the damage spread no further than it needed to.

As the clouds of smoke kicked up from the avalanche earlier cleared up, Abe sat on the floor as he and his students breathed a sigh of relief. Lisa however, held her breath on it.

"That was great!" Clyde exclaimed.

"Yeah," Abe agreed, getting up from the floor, "I didn't think it would actually wo-"

The creature suddenly rose from its intended tomb and screeched before turning to look at Abe, lunging forward as it tried to take out the teacher.

In his surprise, Abe was incapable of dodging in time and took a slash on his chest before he could, by dumb luck, hold the creature's arms in place. Though it was clear that he couldn't hold it for long.

The students panicked as the creature was gaining the upper hand, slowly forcing Abe down, increasing its chance to attack.

Lincoln held his and darted his eyes around, trying to find anything that can help. His panic grew, pausing only when he spotted something. He squinted his eyes at it, and gasped.

He diverted the others' focus onto himself when he moved forward to pick up a rock.

As he prepared to throw it, he shouted out, "Mr. Abe, watch out!"

The teacher could only let out a "Huh?", as Lincoln threw the rock somewhere on the ceiling, the trajectory of which Abe's eyes followed.

When the rock hit, so did it finally for Abe as he head-butted the creature to daze it, rolling away as the rest of the ceiling collapsed onto the creature.

They all watched as debris rained on the creature.

By the end of it, they could still see it just barely poking out from under the rocks. Dust-like particles left the creature's body, confusing the students before they realized that it was disintegrating, letting them know that it was finished for good.

When the creature was finally gone, they all heard groans coming from behind. Turning around, they saw Principal Huggins and Mrs. Shrinivas waking up as the former's secretary was crouched next to them.

"What's going on?" Weakly asked Huggins.

"I think I'm gonna be sick..." Shrinivas remarked on her headache, before she looked around, "Where am I?"

The two shared the same question as they both scanned their surroundings, before settling their eyes on a larger group with many more pairs of eyes staring back at them.

Confused, Shrinivas cocked her eyebrows, "What?"

Abe sighed and smiled, looking at them with a relieved expression.

The kindergartners, sans Lisa, ran up to their teacher and hugged her.

"What?" Shrinivas asked again.

"Boy do we have a lot to tell you." Abe finally spoke up.

"Indeed." Lisa agreed, adjusting her glasses as she looked down on the floor, trying to hide her emotions.

Abe looked around, his smile never fading. That was until he spotted something; a hole on the wall that led outside. He found that it was big enough to fit them all by simply looking at it.

Pointing at said wall, he said, "While you guys catch up, I'm going to check outside. Make sure it's safe."

Everyone else nodded, though the other two teachers were still confused.

Huggins slowly got back on his feet, stumbling slightly which he held his hand up on when the others tried to approach, telling them that he's okay.

"So," He began, looking at the others, "What happened?"

* * *

After a brief rundown on everything that happened, Huggins nodded. Though both he and Shrinivas were still unsure of.

Abe soon rejoined them, wearing a somewhat somber look.

"What?" Lincoln asked first.

Abe looked away for a moment, before looking back at them.

"I think... It's best if you were to see it for yourself."

One way or another, he was gonna have to break the news to them, and he figured it'd be easier if he did it earlier. The results would have been the same either way, and that was his words caused discomfort and uncertainty.

* * *

Abe decided to go out last this time. He needed the others to see it first.

Once the first rounds of gasps were let out, then he joined them.

As he finally stepped foot outside again, he could see them all standing in place, frozen at the sight of the town before them.

There was little of it left, most of the buildings there had been destroyed partially, or outright razed to the ground.

Horror was the only appropriate description of the students' expressions. Some of them held their head, denying what they're seeing.

There were some who couldn't hold back their tears. The twins were an instance of this, though Lana managed herself better.

Lisa was shocked, yet at the same time, somewhat intrigued. A thought she felt disgusted passed her mind.

Lucy was quiet, as she always is. Only this time, it was because she couldn't think of anything to say about this nor does she know what to even think about it.

Lincoln could feel his breathing going out of rhythm. He became aimless in what he focused his eyes on.

"I won't sugarcoat this, you guys." Abe said, taking a deep breath. He sighed before continuing, "This won't get any better soon."

As obvious as it was, it still didn't make them feel any better.

"But..." The man added, "We'll pull through this, and we'll come out on top."

"No, no..." Huggins shook his head, looking over to Abe, "I appreciate your optimism, but with something like this, we don't just 'pull through'. It's not that easy."

"I know." Abe somberly nodded. He then looked up and suggested, "In any case, we should get moving."

Before anyone could get a move on, Lisa stopped the man, "Wait."

Turning to the toddler, Abe raised an eyebrow, "Huh?"

"Excuse me for asking, or even suspecting you of anything at all, but you seem to know or have an idea as to what we're facing against."

"Lisa, what are you talking about?" Lincoln asked.

"Think about it, Lincoln, in all the times he's around, he was capable of facing things head-on."

"W-what are you saying?" Lincoln further inquired.

"In case you haven't realized yet, Lincoln, I suspect Abe here may be more than meets the eye."

As the two went on, Abe had been quiet. He never spoke to confirm anything, not did he deny them.

Before the siblings' conversation could reach a boiling point, it stopped when Lincoln shivered as he felt a tingle down his spine.

When the boy looked away, he noticed that his teacher had also felt something as he too had his eyes somewhere else.

Their reactions were in turn, reacted to by the others who were all staring at them in surprise.

What came next firstly came to Lincoln and Abe's attention as their eyes tracked something in the air. Before their suspicions peaked, finally, it came into view for the others as well.

A small spherical object similar to a rubber ball with a cyan stripe running down the middle landed right in their area.

Abe was the first to act; he flinched before he turned to the others, shouting, "Everybody take cover!"

Panic ensued as the students scrambled and scattered in their attempt to do as they were told.

"What's going on!?" Huggins asked.

"Just do it!" Abe barked, running over towards the ball.

Although reluctant, Huggins, and by extension, the other school staffs did as they were ordered.

Picking it up, Abe chucked the ball as far as he could, with it ending up just on the other side of the nearby road where it exploded in a burst of bluish flames and terrifying all those who witnessed it.

"What was that!?" Huggins questioned once more.

Abe stood up, having dropped to the ground after the throw, and dusted himself off. He then adjusted his coat and answered, "That was a molecular disruption grenade."

"Molecular w-what?" The principal struggled to repeat.

"Simply put, it is a grenade that destroys things by taking them apart on a molecular scale. Or to put in an even simpler wording, it vaporizes." Lisa explained.

Abe nodded as the toddler finished, but before he could speak up, he was interrupted.

"Though it brings again the topic from before," The young genius started again, "How do you know of these things? What do you know? What don't you know?"

Like before, Abe kept quiet, something that was beginning to get on the young genius' nerves.

"Can you just be on with it and answer!?"

"Can we pretend, for this moment, that I don't know any of these? Because I'm sure that there's a better t-"

He was interrupted when another one of those creatures came up from behind and strangled him.

The sudden occurrence surprised the others and they all screamed as the teacher moved around in an attempt to loosen the creature's grip.

"Mr. Abe!" His class, except for a few of them, cried out.

"What do we do!?" Clyde asked.

Lincoln stuttered for a moment, before he noticed that their teacher was starting to back away, having overcome their collective weight. The next thing he noticed was what was behind them.

Gasping, Lincoln ordered, "Quick, Mr. Abe! Back away towards the curb!"

With his breath running short, Abe figured that there would be no sense in arguing thus, he backed away with his body leaned backwards, surrendering to where their mass drags them to. He then felt a sudden jerk, where he realized that the creature's grip had loosened.

Not even the alien creature could keep itself balanced in time, and that allowed its target to be freed.

Abe dropped on one knee, recuperating for a brief moment, before turning back towards the creature and delivering a dropkick onto its chest, forcing it further into the road as Abe fell on his back.

Unfortunately, that left the man vulnerable, and the others realized that too. The creature quickly recovered, but Abe couldn't get up in time and the creature began its approach, only to be hit by a speeding family van which terrified both the downed man and the group behind him.

Almost immediately upon impact, the van, too, had stopped.

Abe stared at the window, barely making out the silhouette of a woman.

The window rolled down, and staring back at him was a blonde girl in her late teens. She stated at him with a mix of surprise and recognition.

"Lori?" Abe spoke first.

"M-Mr. Abe?" Lori followed.

"Mr. Abe?" Leni peeked out from behind her sister.

"Lori?" Lincoln said, approaching the vehicle.

The teen's eyes went wide and she gasped at the sight of Lincoln.

"Lincoln!" She happily called out.

"What?" The other windows rolled down, revealing the rest of the sisters sans Lily.

They were the first to run out to meet their brother, before the eldest two followed suit. They quickly came to notice the younger sisters and their joy could not have been greater. Soon, they came together in a big hug, laughing as they did.

Meanwhile, Abe had gone silent, before he looked on as the last of the creature's remains had disintegrated. That was before he realized something else.

"Wait..." He muttered, turning to the group hug behind him.

Lincoln noticed first that Abe was staring at them, followed by Lori and the rest collectively.

Pointing to them, Abe asked, "You guys are siblings?"

"Well, yeah." Lincoln answered.

"So this is where you moved to?" Lori smiled with one eyebrow raised.

Abe chuckled and got off the ground, standing up before putting his hands on his waist. He shook his head and replied, "Yeah, what a first day, is it?"

"You guys know each other?" The twins asked in unison.

"We don't just know each other," Lynn said, "He was our teacher."

"Yeah, for a good few months." Luan added.

"Zed man here is pretty cool, too. Haven't had a good match in a jam session since Sam and Chunk." Luna reminisced.

"Huh." Lincoln nodded.

Abe was still trying to wrap his head around the scale of their family, he thought it was an exaggeration the first he heard about it. At that moment too he realized something else. Or rather, remembered.

"Right, Lincoln?"

"Yeah?" The boy looked at the man.

"You go on ahead with them." Abe suggested.

"What? I mean, what about you guys?" Lincoln asked, knowing no other reason for them to separate. Except for the fact that his sisters would have wanted the same.

"That's right, where will we go?" Huggins chimed in, the students around him conversed amongst themselves about the same thing.

"We're going to a bunker." Abe said simply.

"Bunker?" Everyone questioned.

"Indeed, there's an evacuation center in town, disguised as an extension building for the police department." Lisa explained, being the only other one who weren't surprised.

"It's settled then," Lori decided, "That's where we'll meet up again, right?"

"Wait, where are we going?" Lincoln looked at his sister questioningly.

"We're gonna head home for a bit, get some extras and that's it. After that we'll be off to the bunker." Lori answered.

Lincoln nodded before he turned to Clyde, "Well buddy, I guess we'll meet you there?"

"No, Clyde's coming with you." Abe cleared up further on what he had in mind. He saw Lincoln turn to him and he crouched in front of the boy, smiling momentarily, before speaking up with a serious tone, "Besides, you still have something to do."

In that moment, Lincoln's eyes widened, and all he could let out was, "H-huh?"

All this time, he never once mentioned, nor has he ever blurted out anything to anyone else but Clyde. He began to think back about what Lisa mentioned. Could it be?

Lisa too, heard it, simply staring at the man while everyone else weren't bothered by anything.

Clyde noticed, but he kept quiet, only looking on as his friend went with his sister into the van. He turned to Abe one last time and nodded before running over to the van and joining Lincoln in it.

Once inside, Lincoln remained silent. He only turned when he heard the others bid their temporary goodbyes and saw Abe waving them off. He returned the gesture, and that was it.

The van moved, and after reaching a certain distance, Abe led the group off to their destination, going out of view within moments.

Lincoln then returned to his seat, slumping down on it slightly and letting out a sigh afterwards.

"What's wrong, Lincoln?" Lynn asked, being seated next to the boy.

"Nothing, I'm just tired." Lincoln said, which the sports-lover seem to take easily.

Meanwhile, Lisa had been peeking out from the edge of her seat, one row forward. She then looked at Lynn and requested, "Hey Lynn, mind if we are to switch our seats?"

Glancing over her two siblings, Lynn decided there wasn't anything she might have to offer for either and decided, "Why not?"

The two got up and quickly switched over, with Lisa settling down on her new seat. Lincoln had been watching her this whole time.

"So, what did you think?" Lisa whispered, continuing on a moment after, "Can we still trust him?"

"Why are you asking me?" Lincoln shrugged, trying harder in not thinking about it.

"Connect the dots, Lincoln; what I suspected him of, the bomb and now... that."

"I don't know, Lisa, I'm just trying to not think about it." Lincoln said, his voice increased slightly in volume.

"Remember that all of this started when he was called out back at the school." Lisa threw in what she thought, was one last possible evidence.

"Stop." Lincoln said, not realizing that he had blurted it out in how he normally talks.

Lisa briefly looked at the others, who in turn, were eyeing them suspiciously. Not wanting to add to the fire, she relented.

In the midst of the silence, a ringtone broke through the silence. Lincoln picked it up, answering immediately.

"Hello?" He greeted, before he gasped as his eyes widened, "Mom? Dad? Oh my goodness, are you you guys okay? Is Lily okay?"

Anxiety filled the air as the others waited for the answer while Lincoln listened on.

Nodding, Lincoln's expression eased up as he finally responded, "Okay, alright. Yeah. I know. I love you guys too. We all do. You too, Lily."

"Well?" Lori asked as Lincoln put away his phone.

"They're safe, they're all the bunker near the police station."

Then they all sighed in relief.

The ride continued on in silence after that, soon arriving in their neighborhood.

The place was desolate; despite the litter of abandoned cars and debris from some of the destroyed houses, it felt as empty as it could be. It unnerved them all, but pushed on as they finally arrived near their house and it was...

Intact. No signs of damage riddled the exterior, confusing the Loud kids as the eldest pulled up on the driveway where something reflected.

"What the?" Lori squinted her eyes at it.

Thinking it was nothing, Lori drove the van further up the driveway and as if they hit something, the area around the bumper flashed a pale, orange glow which forced Lori to step on the brakes.

By the time the car stopped, they had already went further in, with the driver's side having went through by three-quarter.

Surprised, they looked around, with Lori stepping out first and finding out that they were able to pass through whatever it was their car just bumped into.

Lincoln and Lisa were the last ones to it, and they saw that the same glow appeared over the house, the shape of which Lisa recognized as a dome.

Lincoln slowly put his hand through the wall and was met with a headache, which he winced in reaction to. It didn't feel so much like his head was being squeezed, rather it felt like something was being crammed into it. Like information. He was feeling a neural overload.

Lisa would know, as she had just happened to be watching the boy as he tried to recover from it once it was over. She noticed that his nose was bleeding and tugged on the nearby Clyde's shirt.

The geeky boy turned to Lida and followed the direction of where she was pointing. He was surprised to see Lincoln's bleeding nose and he quickly rushed over to him, taking out a handkerchief and handing it over to his friend.

Lincoln covered his nose and held his head with his free hand.

"Are you okay?" Clyde asked.

"Yeah," Lincoln nodded, looking up the house to his window, "But I think it's time I ask about what's going on."

 _End of Chapter._

* * *

 **End Notes: So, what do you think of this one? Was it better, worse, or simply unnecessary? Let me know anyway.**

 **You might also notice that there's a noticeable difference here.**


	5. The Bunker

**Author's Notes:**

 ***Here it is, Chapter 5. I feel like I should actually get this out by now because for the first few days starting next week, I'm gonna have to actually focus on a lot more things involving real life.**

 **-There are some messy parts here and there, admittedly. But admission alone won't be enough so there are some tweaks, I just hope nothing bogs the chapter down too much.**

 ***Enough about all that, why don't I let you guys go on with reading the chapter? I worked hard on this, I hope it does well on what I wanted to deliver with it.**

 ***Oh, and I suppose I should clear up that I do not consider the Loud House to be my creation. Never was, currently isn't, and never will be. I'm just doing things for fun, and I hope I can continue doing so.**

 _Chapter 5. The Bunker_

* * *

"Alright, we literally don't have much time, so we'll make this quick." Lori said, briefly looking out the door of their house, shaking her head at the sight of the wall. Or rather, barrier. She then continued, "At best we'll have 8 minutes to gather everything we need. Everything we need."

The others nodded after Lori emphasized on the last line in particular.

"Okay, let's go!" The eldest Loud declared.

Rushing upstairs to their respective rooms, the sisters all took hold of what they really needed, or instead in their case, what they treasured most.

Lori remained downstairs, waiting for the others to finish as she already had what she needed; her phone, and a few pairs of change that she had already packed ahead of time in case of an emergency. Who knows?

Leni was indecisive, weighing on whether to bring her handmade clothes or her sewing kits. She eventually came to a conclusion; maybe there are people out there that needs something, and maybe there's shortage in materials and clothes. Maybe she can accommodate that, so she decided on her sewing kits and a selected handful of accessories like scarves, ponchos and et cetera, along with several pairs of clothing. She also packed in failed projects so she can rework them to something more useful.

Next was Luna, who decided that the only thing she'll need is her 'axe', or guitar. Thrown in the mix were a few acoustics and her headphones, complete with the selection of songs she had. Luan on the other hand, brought along Mr. Coconut and a small handful of her comedy props.

Lynn walked out of her room carrying a baseball bat and a pitcher glove at the end. Lucy had Edwin, and some of her poem books.

On to the twins; Lana instructed their four main household pets to lead the others away to safety and nothing else. Maybe Hopps, whom she kept in her pocket. Lola played things a bit dramatically as she said goodbye to some of her items, taking only a few dolls and a small portion of her total makeup kit.

Lisa, she searched her room alone. Although the house remained pretty much intact outside, the inside has been shook up and that means some of her stuff had been wrecked. She placed whatever is left them into a bag that she personally had Leni make for her; a wheeled bag with a handle. Like a luggage, which she insists it's different from with the many compartments it had to store her items in.

During her search, she spotted Lily's favorite 'blanky'. She picked it off the floor and inspected it closely, realizing just how lonely she feels in her baby sister's absence. But with her realization, came another, and she smiled at the thought of it.

" _Perhaps I should do something for her. Like returning her most treasured item._ " She thought.

After a moment, the genius toddler walked out of her and Lily's room. As she prepared herself to return downstairs, she noticed that Lincoln's room was shut. Presumably locked, too.

"Come on, dudes, we gotta go!" Luna called, briefly stopping at the top of the stairs, peeking out from the corner.

"Alright, we will regroup soon enough. You can go on ahead, Luna. I still have matters to attend to." Lisa replied.

"Okay, but be quick! Wouldn't want boss lady to get mad!" Luna said, returning downstairs soon after.

Lisa gave a passing nod and waved away before walking towards the door leading to Lincoln's room where she then heard the two boys conversing inside. Though it was more so Lincoln giving Clyde a brief refresh on things.

Glancing up and down the door, Lisa knocked on it.

The talking stopped, and footsteps were heard. In a second or so, the door opened, with Lincoln the one standing there to greet Lisa.

"Lisa! You're just in time." Lincoln said almost cheerfully, motioning his genius sister to come in.

Without hesitation, Lisa did as she was being asked to and came to a stop a few steps inside, and another step to the side as Lincoln closed the door and locked it.

"Okay, you guys ready?" Lincoln asked, walking over to his bed.

Both of his glasses-wearing company nodded their heads, having prepared themselves for what Lincoln was about to show them.

Getting down on the floor, Lincoln looked under his bed, coming off as if he was looking out for the boogeyman. Might as well. Upon coming into view of the belt, he felt something strange. Though as of this moment, it's become quite familiar to the boy.

Reaching out for it, Lincoln could feel the static in his head resurface and intensify the closer he got. When he finally touched it, he felt a pulse of shock, prompting him to reel his hand back and hiss in pain.

Lisa and Clyde reacted as well to that; the former didn't change much with her expression save for one eyebrow raised. The latter reacted more noticeably in that he flinched and went wide-eyed.

Trying again, Lincoln touched the belt and much to his surprise, and relief, nothing happened this time around. With that, he safely pulled the belt out from under his bed.

Getting back up with the belt in his hands, he presented it to the other two.

"Woah." Was all Clyde could say.

Lisa however, adjusted her glasses and inspected it further. Realizing also that the belt had changed in design.

Back when it first took form, it was already polished enough, clean curves and smooth surfaces. But now it looked like it's chrome-plated and in the center, was a screen like rectangular crystal displaying a glowing, pale orange circle.

The strap took the form of many connected rectangular bars no wider than two fingers placed together and no longer than an index finger.

On both sides of it were thick, circular pieces. Of what purpose they were for, Lincoln didn't know yet. Nobody did.

They would continue inspecting it, but interruption came in the form of loud knocking at the door.

"You guys, hurry up!" Lori's annoyed voice came.

"We'll be right there!" Answered Lincoln.

"You have 20 seconds!"

Hearing that, the boys gulped and looked at each other.

Clyde asked first, "What do we do?"

Lincoln shook his head, "I don't know, our bags?"

Clyde also shook his head, "We left them at school, remember?"

They then heard Lisa faking a cough to get their attention, which worked as they both looked at her as she confidently stated with a smile.

"Leave it to me."

* * *

Miraculously, the trio managed to come down with just a couple of seconds left, barely avoiding Lori's wrath as she stopped counting down.

"We're here, we're here!" Lincoln said.

Sighing, Lori then turned to the door, "Come on."

With the order issued, they all made their way to the car, with Lincoln and Clyde returning to their seats at the back.

Before Lisa could get in however, Lori stopped her.

"Wait, what is this?" Lori pointed at the toddler's bag.

"The items I feel is necessary, of course."

Though it was lightweight and easy for even Lisa to bring around, it still took up some space, and that was the problem here.

"No."

"But what if there are insufficient materials? Due to circumstances we were presented with, it is to be expected that some blunders are to be made and thus, preparation becomes imperfe-"

"Stop. No." Lori ordered, pinching the bridge of her nose. She looked over briefly at Leni, who shrugged, and sighed as she looked back at Lisa, "Alright, fine, get in."

"Thank you." Lisa smiled triumphantly. Or, the best she can do.

With that out of the way, Lisa hopped in and joined with Lincoln and Clyde at the back.

In a moment, the van reversed out of the driveway and the Louds, including their lone guest, were back on their journey.

Looking out the back, the trio watched as they gained distance from the house.

The other sisters, sans Lori, who simply looked through the rearview and side mirrors, joined in. When they did, they all noticed something.

The barrier fully materialized as a giant dome encasing the house before dissipating away.

"Whoa." Said the boy duo.

An orange blink from the belt confirmed to Lisa that the dome was its doing.

But... as they passed by a couple of blocks, something caught wind of them. One of the creatures.

For a brief moment as it eyed the van, its 'eyes' glowed red.

* * *

Their journey was safe, relatively speaking. There's still the possibility that they could fall under attack at any time. But ultimately, nothing happened, and they were relieved.

The trip came closer to its end when they finally arrived at the police station which, didn't seem so complete with its defense as it didn't have much officers guarding the area. There's a considerable amount of them, but they were sure these weren't everyone. Nor did it feel enough.

"Where are the others?" Lynn asked first as Lori drove the van in, led by a small group of officers.

"Perhaps they are scattered around the town?" Lisa speculated.

"In any case, as long as they're here, we should be safe." Lori said, driving the van along the path set up by the officers. Then she frowned, "I hope."

All the while, Lincoln and the others took the time to look at the building.

A bit underwhelming, they'd have to say.

It was no bigger than a two-storey building, fashioned in a way that makes it look more like a city hall. The paint job made it inconspicuous too, mostly grey and blue for the roof and the corners.

Eventually they followed a path that led to an underground parking space, with which the depth of finally made some sense as to why the exterior was designed the way it is.

The parking space, although decently sized, wasn't exactly filled with as much vehicles as they thought. Then they remembered the abandoned cars they saw along the way.

For now it appears that they were the latest comers into the place as they didn't bump into anyone else, aside from the few officers accompanying them.

When they finally got to the main building, it seemed to expand to something much greater than they were initially met with. Starting there, was a sizeable resting space measuring 25 by 15 meters. The place was filled with just about everything they would need in an evacuation center.

Lori and the others marveled at the place; it was the perfect to place to hide out in. But there were more important things to tend to. People, actually.

Further inside, the accompanying officers left the group to return to their post outside.

Inevitably, they set their eyes on their parents. Bot the Louds'and the McBride's, conversing with one another.

"Mom! Dad!"

"Dads!"

The children's call got the attention of the two families' respective parents. Looking over to the direction of the voices, and spotted their hard-to-miss children as they collectively ran towards them.

"Kids!" The Loud patriarch shouted in return.

Rita stood almost frozen. In her arms was Lily, who mumbled while moving around, reaching out for her siblings.

Clyde's fathers had their eyes immediately gravitate towards their lone son among the Loud crowd.

"Clyde, honey!" One of the McBride fathers, Howard, shouted.

Doing no lesser in returning their children's favor, the parents ran as they could towards their kids, eager to reunite. They soon came together in a big hug, embracing one another in joyous silence before finally breaking off.

Lynn Sr inspected his children and laughed as he spoke up, "It's so great to see you guys!"

"Great to see you too dad, mom." Lincoln replied in return, looking at both his parents, as well as Lily.

"Oh, I was really worried for every you were out there." Rita stated, trying to hold herself back from getting too emotional.

"I mean, we were all worried too. But you guys literally had no choice since the police would probably not even let you go out." Lori said in an attempt to make her mother feel less guilty for not being able to be with them.

Their father laughed heartily in response, definitely feeling better now that they're all reunited. A sense of relief washed over him and his wife when Lori said that. He then glanced over behind him to the resting area and said as he jerked his thumb in its direction, "Ah, why don't we go in?"

"Sure!" The kids happily responded.

All except for Lisa. She had suddenly went silent after a thought passed her mind.

"Hey, Lincoln!" Clyde called, getting said boy to look at him, "See you in a bit, then?"

Smiling, Lincoln nodded and replied, "Yeah man, see you later."

The Loud kids then followed their parents as they were led to the resting area they were designated to.

As they walked, Lisa moved closer to Lincoln and lightly tugged on his shirt, easily grabbing his attention.

"Hm? What is it?" Lincoln asked, glancing briefly to his sister.

Lisa simply pointed to her bag, a gesture Lincoln nodded at.

"Hang on, we'll get to that soon. But first, let's take a moment to unwind, okay?"

* * *

After arriving at their destination, the kids thought of taking it easy. It's only fair that such was their next decision.

Lori took off first, having decided to look for Bobby. Leni tagged along, now carrying Lily after she was entrusted to look after their baby sister by their mother.

"So who are we looking for again?" Leni asked while Lily looked on.

"I want to find Bobby," Lori explained, sighing before she added, "I should at least look for him myself before resorting to my phone."

Leni and Lily both nodded as Lori looked at her phone.

Not much longer, Lori accidentally bumped into someone, staggering her and making the person she bumped into to flinch.

"Ow, I'm so sorry." Said the person, a young man.

"No, no, I wasn't looking where I was..." Lori insisted that she was at fault, before trailing off as she finally recognized the familiar voice.

She looked up and saw the very person she was looking for.

She gasped, and clasped her hands together as her expression turned to one of happiness as she finally called out, "Bobby!"

"Babe!" Said the young man, Bobby, in return.

All the while, Leni and Lily stared as the lovebirds embraced one another. Leni then smiled at the sight of the couple having been reunited, and Lily became amused, laughing as she clapped her hands at this display of affection.

Said couple were interrupted by the baby, with Lori breaking off from the hug first, rubbing her arm in embarrassment.

From afar, Luna watched as Lori was back together with Bobby. Leni simply smiled along, feeling happy if the others are. As for Luna, those were enough to keep her spirits lifted. Before a buzz from her phone, held in her hands, returned her attention towards it and reminded her of why she felt down in the first place.

The message was from Sam, and written on it was her apology of not being able to be with Luna as she had been ushered into a different shelter.

Luna sighed as she finished reading the message.

"Oh, seriously?" Lynn said in frustration, prompting Luna to look at her as she continued, "Margo and the others are at a different bunker?"

"Same with Giggles and Benny here." Luan informed of the same thing, before looking away from her phone.

"So are Sam and Tabby, but at least the others get to see their friends again." Luna said with a half-hearted smile, trying to look at the bright side of things.

Luan sighed and said, also with a smile, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"It's still baloney, though." Lynn huffed with a clear hint of dissatisfaction, crossing her arms afterwards.

Although they were glad that their siblings get to meet their friends, Luna and Luan both felt the same as Lynn was. Selfish as those thoughts may be, it's not wrong that they feel that way. After all, they could all use some more friends.

But what if they wanted to be left alone for the time being? Well...

Once the group had split off and went their own ways, the twins, or rather, Lola, remained at their area with the parents. Lana stuck with her to keep company.

In an abrupt change of mood, Lola was reminded of what happened back at the school. Being the first ones to see the creature, it terrified her. More so when she looked at her bandaged arm.

Lana watched as her twin did so, and was in turn, reminded of how she could have lost her. She looked back down and Hopps popped out of her front pocket.

"What should I do?" She asked her amphibian friend.

Rita, who just happened to pass by, caught a glimpse of Lola's injury. Needless to say, she was shocked, stopping almost immediately once she fully processed what she saw.

"Goodness, Lola!" She exclaimed, somewhat surprising her daughter.

"What is it?" Lynn Sr asked, having heard her wife's panicked tone.

"Look at this!" Rita showed Lola's wound to her husband.

"Goodness gracious!" Said the Loud father, his eyes widened as he crouched next to Lola. "What happened? How long have you had this?"

Lola stuttered, before trailing off as she failed to answer. What good would it be for her to remember more about that?

"Have you guys seen any monsters?" Lana helped her sister, gaining attention from even several more people as she asked that.

Rita gasped, realizing almost instantly what Lana must've meant.

"Well..." Lana continued, and Lola flinched, "We were helping our class and some others escape, but then the creature got in..."

They all heard sniffling from Lola, stopping the animal loving Loud. Lola then began whimpering before lightly sobbing, still trying to fight off her desire to cry.

Lana then buried her face in her hands, sobbing as well. She then looked at Lola, and said, "I'm sorry."

The Loud parents looked at each other, before again at their kids.

"Hey, hey." The Loud patriarch said, putting his hands on the twins' shoulders, prompting them to look up at him with eyes reddened and teary. Sighing, the Loud father continued, "It must have been terrifying, isn't it? We know how it felt,too."

Sniffling, Lola said, "Really?"

"Of course we do," Their mother joined in, "It wasn't easy getting Lily here, you know? We didn't actually get here the moment chaos broke loose."

"I've got one on my side," Lynn Sr revealed, holding the aforementioned part of his body which he winced upon touching, "But the thing is, even though everything is going terribly, we can't let it go to our heads. No matter how terrifying it all might seem."

Those words, got the full attention of the twins.

"So yeah, you know how it is. Trust that we'll pull through it and we will. As long as he hope for it, a miracle will happen... or something like that. And I want to believe that too. I don't know why I'm saying all this, but nevertheless, I hope you guys believe it too. Because if there's anything that I'd hate, it'll be to see my two little angels all sad and gloomy."

The Loud father ended his speech with a small, but sincere smile.

Without knowing why, the twins were reminded of Lincoln's substitute teacher when he said it. Only difference is... they felt like they could trust their father's words even more. They should. Because by this point, all of their previous sense of terror had nearly disappeared. Sure it remained still, but they were somewhat capable of suppressing it now.

And for that, they wanted to thank their father. Their disheartened expression slowly began to liven up, and they soon began bearing semblance of how they are usually like.

The Loud father smiled and nodded, getting ready to leave as he thought he had done what he needed to. The only thing he didn't expect, was how effective it was, holding a much greater meaning to his twin daughters as he was then caught in a hug.

He was surprised, and the twins were silent as they buried their face into his chest. They didn't say anything, but he understood them well. The Loud matriarch too, was soon pulled into the hug by Lola.

They were also being watched by from somewhere. This time by Lucy who "sighed" and wished truly to believe in her father's words.

"I don't buy it." Somebody said, causing the goth to look at the speaker.

None other it was, than her fellow gothic friend, Haiku.

"I've told you about it before, but I'm never one for false hope and bravado. When you try to pull through something with a smile, you're only going to end up being the one hurt in the end. Always."

"But what if it's not all that nonsensical?" Lucy lightly protested.

"You can choose to believe them if you want, they're your family after all," Haiku looked at Lucy, "But me? I try to stay away from it. That Abe guy, in particular, is too much."

Come to think of it, Lucy did realize it too; Abe was far too optimistic despite having all odds stacked against him and under serious pressure.

That's why Lincoln and Lisa wanted to confront him about it. What does he know? How far is the extent of his knowledge, if any? After getting Clyde back in tow, they asked around the people before finally meeting up with their classmates who directed them deeper inside the shelter.

Somewhere in the third resting space, they spotted him; conversing with some of their... original teachers. Mrs. Johnson looked healthy as ever, the total opposite of what they heard earlier today. Then Coach Pacowski, also healthy, but they doubted his absence was because of health issues. At least they thought so.

Nevertheless, it was quite strange to see them here, chatting away with the substitute teacher. Well, from what little they could see, he seems to be declining something. What, was the question they got the answer to the closer they were.

"No, really, it's just something that needed to be done."

"Oh but insist on returning the favor anyway," Mrs. Johnson said, "Honestly, I don't know what happened to me but uh- I regret not being there for my own students."

"Even if we were there, we probably wouldn't have gotten out in one piece!" The coach exclaimed, Mrs. Johnson nodded at the notion.

"Come on, you guys would have done great as well." Abe assured.

"Mr. Abe?" Lincoln called as he approached the man.

Said man turned around and briefly stared at Lincoln, before he finally turned back to his colleagues. With a smile, he said, "Sorry guys, but how about we talk again later? After all, a teacher must attend to his students. Or her, of course."

His fellow teachers looked at each other, before smiling and nodding at Abe' request.

As they walked away from him, Abe waved before turning to the trio.

"I take it you guys have questions?" He asked bluntly, his smile fading.

"Many." Lisa nodded, as did the other two.

"Alright, let's take this to the space between each areas." Abe suggested.

Each resting spaces are connected by a smaller room, similar to to the ones in trains. That's where they have designated as their discussion area.

* * *

After closing the door, Abe turned to his students, and the accompanying genius sister of one of them.

"So who's first?" He asked.

"Me." Lisa said.

"What do you want to know?"

"First off, do you hold any scale of knowledge regarding those creatures? Or of who the invaders are, if that is what's happening? How far does your knowledge go?"

Abe scratched his head, and sighed, "Okay, let's say that in this case, I'm an elevator; by moving, I am progressing on imparting what I know, but it is inevitable that in that trip, more people will come in. More people, more stops. More stops, slower progress. Basically, I have to let you guys in on things slowly and not tell everything immediately. One step at a time, alright?"

Though annoyed by the pack of a solid answer, Lisa was nonetheless somewhat in agreement with his analogy, "Fine then, who wants to go next?"

Clyde raised his hand, not wanting to be rude, and was pointed at by Abe, giving him his okay. Clearing his throat, Clyde spoke up, "Who are you, Mr. Abe? Why are you here?"

"I suppose that should be a good start. It's okay if you just call me Zed starting now, school's out anyway. But I consider myself to be a wanderer of sorts, travelling here and there."

"That's how you ended up here, then?" Clyde assumed, Zed nodded.

"I've been here for quite some time, but uh... you guys- you remember last Friday night, right?"

The trio looked at each other, before looking again at Zed. They nodded.

"Okay, so in case you didn't realize it, that shooting star might be more than what we initially thought of it."

Lincoln listened on, trying to not show any hints of worry. It's likely that Lisa had been right all along. Speaking of her, Lincoln briefly eyed her and saw that she was on full alert, highly suspicious of the man in front of them.

"What about it?" Lincoln brought himself to ask.

"Well, has there been anything strange lately?" Zed, in turn, asked.

"If you're trying to prod information out of us, forget about it." Lisa warned.

"Whatever you're trying to hide, please don't. This might have to come to a much more dangerous situation than it started out as."

Lincoln closed his eyes, unable to contain the sudden upsurge of panic in his heart.

"I know something happened that night, too. The comet broke off." Zed said, finally getting to Lincoln.

The boy opened his eyes, and stared at Zed. He thought he was the only one who saw that.

Lisa decided that was it.

"Have you been spying on us!?" Lisa accused Zed on an entirely different account.

"What? I thought it was clear that night. I saw it broke off. What are you-" Zed defended himself before trailing off. He silently stared at the toddler, and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Lisa asked.

"I think it's time we stop playing charades?" Zed somewhat joked.

"Long overdue." Lisa replied.

"Whatever it is that broke off, I'm pretty sure it held something. So, I decided to snoop around after the shooting star passed. But I found nothing."

Lincoln gulped down his fears, and asked, "Was it... by any chance, a large rock? That- that you're looking for?"

"The tiny fragments around the crater where I thought the comet landed suggests so."

"Are you an enemy?" Lisa worriedly asked.

"If I was, now would be the time where I exploit you guys."

Lincoln looked back to everything that's happened during the last few days. First the fragment, then the belt, then the game. Following that, the attack. Now, this man that stands before them.

"Then, what do you know about this?" Lincoln asked, taking Lisa's bag, who lightly protested, but relented when Lincoln searched inside it.

Zed waited anxiously for the boy to finish.

"You said before, that I had something else to do." Lincoln brought up. He looked at Zed, before pulling out the belt, "Is this what you meant?"

Zed's eyes widened, and he put his right hand over his mouth whereafter his brows furrowed. In truth, he did this so he could somewhat see the face of his now inwardly-worn watch. It emitted a faint blue glow as he sneakily pointed it towards the belt. In what is actually less than 3 seconds, he moved his hand away.

"I believe so," He finally spoke up in response to Lincoln's question, and tilted his head slightly, "But I didn't expect it to look like that."

"What is this thing?" Lincoln shook the belt in his hands.

Zed glanced at both the belt and Lincoln, before settling his gaze on the boy, "Do you feel... different?"

"What?" Lincoln lowered the belt in order to be able to look at Zed.

"Has anything about you changed? Like say, how you perceive things?"

Lincoln was confused at first, before he perked up, "The game."

"What game?" Clyde looked to his friend.

"T-that dodgeball game!" Lincoln cleared up, with Clyde nodding as he continued, "During the game, things seemed to slow down at times. And, and, I knew exactly where to throw. As if I knew the exact trajectories."

Although he was nodding at Lincoln's recollection of the game, that last part had Zed confused. He decided to keep quiet about it, however.

"The same happened with the creature..." Lincoln remembered. He started to panic; he held his head and yelled out, "What's happening to me!?"

His sudden outburst shocked everyone present. Crouching down, he continued to think about everything that changed about him. His sharpened reflexes, all that buzzing in his head and, that strange tingle when he shook Zed's hand. In an attempt to direct the reason for his confusion, he pointed to Zed.

"You! It's because of that handshake! You did something!" He accused the man, who didn't flinch at it.

Instead of trying to defend himself, Zed knelt down and put his hands on Lincoln's shoulders, which was responded to with the boy squirming. Zed then tightened his grip, forcing the boy to stop as he winced in reaction to the man's response.

"Lincoln." Zed said in the softest way he could.

The boy looked at the man, who stared deep into his eyes.

"It's okay to be scared. It's okay to be angry, at what's happening to you right now."

"What's happening to me?" Lincoln asked again.

"Things that are at their cores, incomprehensible. Starting today, what you do will almost entirely be up to you." Zed answered, making the boy flinch. Then he narrowed his eyes, "But I only ask one thing of you: do not fear your decisions."

Lincoln could feel his eyes finally welling up. He held his head and looked down, trying to make sense of things.

"Okay." Lincoln said at last, sniffling.

"Lisa? Clyde?" Zed called, looking at those two, "I want you to keep this a secret. Not for me... but for Lincoln. What is bound to happen to him will be hard for everyone, especially his own family, to correctly handle."

Lisa stared at the man, slowly beginning to nod.

"One last thing, Lincoln." Zed added, getting the boy to look back at him. He took a deep breath, and spoke up, "I only ask that you do not succumb to your fears. It is okay to feel it, but never, fall into despair. No matter what, you must always stand up against it."

The moment he said that, Zed stood up.

"And this is where I end this. I understand that you will need time to process everything I said. Consider this; as your actions can those around you, it also means that whatever it is that's happening to you, it's up to you to decide how you want to use it. From what I saw, I think I can trust you. I'll see you when I see you."

With that, Zed walked away, out of the separator room and towards the opposite side of where the trio approached him.

Lincoln continued to stare as Zed finally disappeared from his sights. That's when he looked at the belt, wondering what it really is. He never got an answer as to what it can actually do. He smiled at that thought, and snickered.

"Are you okay?" Clyde asked.

"Would you like to clear your mind with a little walk?" Lisa suggested.

Lifting his head, Lincoln looked at Lisa and with a wider smile, he answered, "Yeah, sounds good."

* * *

The trio had gotten out of the separator room. Not before paying a visit to his teachers and friends again.

Eventually, they arrived near the entrance they came from, only noticing the main entrance during their trip there. The main entrance was strange, it had a blast door.

Although the walk took a total of several minutes, just under 10, it felt much longer. This is due to Lincoln saying almost nothing throughout.

Once they reached the doorway between the first area and the parking space, Lincoln took a deep breath. He exhaled a moment later, seemingly calmer than before.

"I cannot take this. Lincoln, you don't have to-" Lisa began, only to be interrupted.

"No, Lisa, it's okay." Lincoln raised a hand. He was smiling, but it looked somber. Despite that, it still felt sincere.

"Why?" Was all Lisa could ask.

"I don't know, but Mr. Abe said things have changed, remember?" He said, "I don't know what he meant, and I'm scared, but I guess I'll just have to see it to the end."

Lincoln's words were hopeful, but there was a noticeable hint of uncertainty in it.

Clyde meanwhile, was a bit disappointed that he didn't do much to help. He scratched his head and looked into the parking space.

As he did that, the others did too after noticing what they did. Collectively, they thought about how things could have gone much better. Or of how they could have made it better.

During all of this, Clyde spotted something and went, "Huh."

"What is it?" Lincoln asked.

Pointing to a motorcycle, Clyde replied, "I don't know, I think I've seen that bike before? I don't remember."

"That's normal, under these circumstances, it would be hard to remember much. It's also normal that you would focus on something like that to help you get your mind off things. I wouldn't blame you."

Unknown to them however, was that a pair of hands had reached out for the boys' shoulders. Slowly, it closer. Closer, and closer.

Then, with a loud yell, the hands made contact with its targets, followed by the terrified screams of both Lincoln and Clyde. Their reactions were so great, they actually jumped up beyond their waist, which in turn, scared the toddler beside them.

The boys landed, but their legs felt like jelly and they were just about to give in while their hearts were beating like crazy. All the while, somebody laughed right behind them. They recognized the voice.

Turning slowly to the source, they saw Ronnie Anne laughing her life off at their reactions.

Shakily, Lincoln began, "Ro-Ronnie Anne!"

"Y-you're here!?" Clyde followed with a voice just as shaky.

The tomboy's laughter finally died down, and she wiped away a tear as she answered, "of course I'd be here, where else would I be?"

Seeing their concerned expressions, she realized what they meant and corrected herself, "Oh, you meant... Oh, okay. Yeah, I wasn't at school today because Bobby and I had to uh... deal with some stuff first.

"And naturally, that meant you were unable to come to school?" Lisa deduced.

Ronnie Anne nodded and shrugged, while the boys nodded.

The Hispanic girl darted her eyes on the duo before she too, noticed the bike.

"Oh hey, you guys see that bike over there?" She pointed.

"Yeah, what about it?" Clyde asked, being the one who was surprisingly more curious about it.

"Oh man, you should have seen the rider. He came in and just started fighting those things! With just his legs!" Excitedly told Ronnie Anne.

Though, her listeners couldn't quite share her excitement and instead, glanced over at each other before they stared on as Ronnie Anne continued with being giddy.

" _There is another person who can physically contend against those creatures?_ " Lisa contemplated.

" _Is Mr. Abe alone or...?_ " Lincoln thought.

" _Could it be? That person I saw...?_ " Clyde mused.

"Anyway," Ronnie Anne began, apparently not noticing their moment of pondering, "What's new with you guys? You know... before all this?"

Before anyone could answer, they heard sounds of screaming and yelling. Following that were the sounds of gunfire.

Inside, an officer finished talking to his radio and shouted, "Everyone!"

With his call, everyone turned to him as he prepared to give them their orders. Before they could do that, however...

"Wait, no, don't close the blast do-!" Briefly came Zed's voice before an explosion was heard, shaking the building, and the hearts of those who heard it.

"We have to go..." Lincoln suggested, the others nod.

So they ran back inside. Almost immediately afterwards, they were greeted by their family members.

"Are you guys alright?" Lori asked.

"We're fine, let's go!" Lincoln answered.

With that, the Louds and the McBrides ran. Within moments, officers came into view, backing away as they fired on at an incoming danger. A swarm of danger.

Those who couldn't get away in time were killed by the hands of those cursed creatures. Many of them screeched as they practically flooded into the building, terrifying all who saw them and terrorizing those very people as soon as they got in.

They heard another scream, and from the swarm, came Zed. He struggled to fight off the creatures, merely pushing them away and just barely saving those caught in their creatures.

"Mr. Abe!" Lincoln worriedly called out.

Zed briefly looked at Lincoln, before he was punched in the face by one of the creatures. It shocked everyone and even more when he survived it. Before he could get another fist in his face, he held his assailant in place.

"Go!" He shouted.

"Come on, come on, let's go!" Lincoln said as he pretty much dragged his family away.

The group turned to run, but were slightly slowed down as some others still showed concern for Zed. They'd be thankful for that.

"Watch out!" An officer shouted.

In front of the group, landed a ball that was now familiar to them.

"Wait!" Lincoln warned.

With Lincoln having pretty much taken the lead, he was the closest to the bomb. His parents pushed him further behind and told them to back away.

During the confusion, Lisa found it hard to keep up and fell off-balance when her bag bumped into something and tripped her, with Clyde coming to her aid. Lori noticed it and ran over to her, managing only in helping out Clyde and getting the two a few steps ahead.

Then the bomb detonated, and they were well outside it's blast radius. But nonetheless, the shockwave was enough to blow them away, knocking out everyone who were closest. Those being, both the Loud and McBride parents, as well as Lori.

Those who weren't knocked out obviously did not fare much better as many of them were barely hanging on to their consciousness.

Lincoln had briefly blacked out, before he was awoken by the sounds of his family's pained moans accompanied by loud ringing in his ear. At least, from those who weren't out cold. Wait...

Only at this point did the Loud boy realized that some of his family members were knocked out. Though it was hard to properly make out who's out and who's still barely conscious as he only had his blurry eyes and ringing ears to rely on.

Then the headache settled in as a cacophony of many things began filling his ears. There were screams, yells, screeches, and horrifying sounds that came whenever those creatures got their hands on an unfortunate victim.

He covered his ears and tried not to look as he searched for Zed. He saw him starting to become overwhelmed by the swarm around him.

His heart was beating fast, not a single beat skipped. Sweat ran down the side of his face as he was beginning to struggle with his breathing. He also noticed that pain was all he could feel when he tried to move. His mind was going hazy.

But, he noticed something else among everything. It stood out to him most, because of what it made him feel. He painfully turned his head to look at his baby sister and saw her crying. He wanted to calm her down. But how? He himself wasn't calm.

He wanted to cry out for help, but the officers were all preoccupied with the creatures and the other civilians were too afraid to do anything.

While he watched the one-sided battle ensue, he noticed yet another thing; everything seemed to slow down to the point where he could make out the creatures even when they moved. It felt unfair, these things, couldn't care less about bullets.

... That's right, whenever hit, the bullets were merely crushed in by its own energy. It made him frustrated. Making things worse, when he further focused on things, some if them sidestepped the bullets. His eyes widened. Another one moved its hand faster than the bullet despite their distance. That being, point blank.

"It's unfair..." The boy said quietly. He whimpered as he said again whilst planting his face on the floor, "It's unfair..."

A tingle down the back of his neck caught his attention. He pushed his head off the floor and looked around. He recognized this familiar feeling, but couldn't find the source during the first few seconds. Eventually he did set his eyes on it. Or rather, where it was stored in.

Lisa's bag had a slight unzipping and from it, Lincoln could see a faint orange glow.

Mustering all his remaining strength, he crawled his way there. It took a toll on his body quickly as he fell again, but not his mind. He inched his way, successfully approaching the bag without being noticed.

Using the bag as support, he helped himself up to his knees and further unzipped the bag. He pulled out the belt and immediately took note of a glowing orange circle in the center.

"You can help me, right? Now's the time to show me what you can do. Please." He begged, treating the item as if it was a living creature.

Then he realized the folly of his actions. He hung his head low and cursed himself.

" _Was it not stated before that what you do, can affect things?_ " He thought to himself. Only he didn't think about it. He heard his own voice, but it wasn't his thoughts.

Still, it got him thinking, and he looked again at the belt. He remembered about Lily and heard her crying still.

Intently staring at the belt, Lincoln was surprised to hear a click as the strap disconnected in the middle, revealing another change as it looked like actual connectors.

He turned it around and wrapped it over his waist, the length of the belt altered to fit him and locked in with another click.

Everything turned white as a blinding light flashed brightly. To the others, it appears that a giant ball of light had just been created where the boy stood. But to Lincoln, it was far more bizarre.

* * *

He opened his eyes to a seemingly endless space of orange, white streaks occasionally swept over the"walls". He looked around in confusion before something appeared before him.

It was strange being inside the place; it was warm, as if the belt was trying to pull him from death's embrace.

Although he had worn the belt, in here, he found it to be otherwise.

He stared at it for a moment, before Lily's cries snapped him out of it. He then took a deep breath.

"Please, I need your help." He pleaded.

The belt beeped with a harmonious tone, and Lincoln perceived it as his greenlight. Or rather, his orangelight.

Nodding, he grabbed hold of the belt again, this time with confidence and determination as he strapped it over his waist again.

Engulfed in another white light, Lincoln felt a surge of energy coursing through his body.

Back outside, Lily's cries got the attention of one of the creatures, and stepped forward as it foolishly attempted to silence her.

Instead, it was met with a strong punch to its 'face', sending it tumbling backwards, shrieking as it did.

What was initially seen as a silhouette, was revealed to be a figure clad in an armor of sorts as the bright light behind it faded. Upon further revelation, they found it to be masculine.

Apparently he had a calming effect too, stopping Lily from crying as he relaxed his posture. He then proclaimed, with the voice of a young man as it pointed to the swarm:

 **"I won't let you do as you please anymore!"**

 _End of Chapter._

* * *

 **End Notes:**

 ***A little bit of heads-up; it's more than likely that past this chapter and onwards, the word count is going to see an additional 1k increase.**

 **-It was like this when I wrote the previous version of this chapter, too. So uh...**


	6. Advancing Forward

**Author's Note: This is it fellas, the monster chapter I've been lagging behind on. This is a rewrite. I started this one last Friday (30th November) and finished only yesterday (3rd December). Needless to say, I was pooped, and found myself unable to get the final edits done. But here it is now, dangerously long because I wanted to make up for what little fights I did. Now don't get me wrong, fights don't necessarily have to be long, but eh...**

 **By the way, I also uploaded this today as a celebration of me finally finishing my... finals. So yeah, here you go!**

 _Chapter 6. Advancing Forward_

* * *

Lincoln stood, nearly motionless as he stared on at the swarm of pale, creatures of death in front of him. To the others, he appeared as a savior, descended from the skies above to save them.

In reality, however, the opposite could not be any truer. Deep behind his mask, Lincoln could feel all sorts of emotions brewing up in him. He was terrified, at the sudden realization that he needed to face this many of them. Yet at the same time, he knew he had to do something. After all, he couldn't let his family suffer.

It felt strange too, his outfit didn't seem to give him that much protection. It was at its core, a tight orange spandex-like bodysuit covering his body. He looked to his white-gloved hands, and subsequently saw his similarly-colored boots.

There were also extra patterns on his body. There was a yellow diamond shape in the middle of his body, taking up a decent space on it. From said diamond's sides sprouted the base of an upside down white triangle. Speaking of triangles… they were also on both his shoulders, followed by white diamonds in pairs of three, one on each arm and taking just enough space from the tip of the triangle to near his gloves.

He nearly trembled; but heard a familiar series of harmonic beeps. He looked down to his belt -now slightly thicker than it was before and bearing a much coarser and grainy texture to it- feeling as if it was cheering for him.

Unfortunately he couldn't have another second to truly embrace the feeling the beeping gave him before a tingle down his neck forced him to sidestep from a clawed hand.

To him, it felt as if the attack was slow; slow enough for him to register it in time and dodge. That too, was something he couldn't dwell on before having to avoid another attack, this time from one that wielded a strange club-like weapon. He heard Lisa mention it before…

" _A knobkierie?_ " The boy thought to himself.

Instead of a regular body, it had a bony handle, somewhat resembling a spine. Its knob was held by several oddly enlarged segments.

It wasn't long before he was taken by surprise by the weapon-wielding creature swinging its weapon again towards him, forcing him take a step back and quickly close the gap between them and holding its weapon in place as he punched it in the gut. Or at least, where it's supposed to be.

Again it felt weird; he had no desire to counter, but his survival instincts just so happened to flare up at the moment, resulting in what he did.

Backing away, he noticed that the creature was phased. He also noticed one coming from his side.

Dodging the attack, Lincoln then kicked the phased creature nearby into the one that attempted to attack him.

Inevitably, he failed to shift his focus elsewhere and took a hit from one of the clawed ones on his back, sending him stumbling forward and hissing in pain.

In another time-stretched moment, Lincoln could see sparks coming out from his back, hinting to him the somewhat metallic properties of his suit.

For a brief moment, he stared his assailant in the 'face', before looking down to its legs. On impulse, he dropped as it approached him and kicked its legs, giving it a mean trip towards its comrades.

Quickly getting up, Lincoln cautiously approached the swarm, who in turn, cautiously surrounded him.

From the small crevices between the creatures' bodies, Zed could just make out Lincoln, fully armored and noticeably taller than he was before.

Feeling confidence rising in him, Zed nodded at the boy, signaling to him his approval despite not being visible to the boy.

Lincoln looked all around him, becoming more tense as the creatures increased in number. Then, he saw them again, his sisters. His family, and Clyde, most of them were barely awake.

Upon closer inspection however, he found that they were coming around, adding to his worries.

In the heat of the situation and with the pressure finally taking effect, Lincoln found himself unable to properly register things and ended up being overwhelmed by the sheer number of the swarm.

While under the creatures' grip, Lincoln heard a yell, followed by a rain of bullets. Something he was lucky enough to avoid being caught in the middle of, by dropping to the floor the moment the creatures' grip loosened.

Surprisingly, the bullets actually managed to force them back.

Once the shooting stopped, Lincoln found that some of them had been incapacitated while the rest had backed away, far enough so he could get back up and gain some more distance by moving backwards to his family.

Coming to his side were a handful of officers, and some more on the other side.

In the midst of the chaos, the police had been out scavenging for the weapons they lost, as well as bringing in some more.

One of them stepped closer to Lincoln and looked at him, nodding. He then turned to his back and ordered his men to bring the survivors away to safety.

Lincoln could feel his chest getting lighter; as if a weight had just been lifted off of him. He now had less to worry about, thanks to the police.

It's only inevitable that the creatures would immediately strike again the moment they recovered; so they did.

They were however, intercepted.

Sliding across the floor, Zed positioned his legs just in front of one of the creatures, tripping it and causing a small chain reaction with the others falling on the first one and so on; buying more time for Lincoln and the police to prepare.

Zed then regrouped with Lincoln, who looked at him as he got closer.

Although he had grown taller with the armor, Lincoln still found himself having to look up just to meet Zed's eyes.

"Sir, you need to get somewhere safe." An officer chimed in.

"You got a tonfa?" Zed asked, looking at the officer.

"What?"

"Watch out!" Lincoln warned, moving off to take on a couple of approaching monsters.

"I can help with this." Zed assured the officer, holding out his hand.

Said officer was indecisive. Until of course, the orange-clad fighter decided for him.

"Trust him."

With no options left, the officer handed Zed a nightstick, and he immediately rushed off.

Running to the back of the two monsters Lincoln was holding off, Zed took hold of one of them by the secondary handle of his weapon and yanked it away from the boy where he then whacked it.

Lincoln took care of the other one by shoving it away and punching it in the face.

Afterwards, the boy took up a stance; fists raised and legs slightly apart. Zed glanced over to his hand and twirled the weapon to make sure he still has the dexterity for it.

Seeing the two standing so defiantly against the large swarm before them got to the squadron of police officers; they felt hopeful.

"Alright everyone," The commanding officer started, "Guess it's time we do our part too; protect and serve."

A screech from the creatures signaled the start of the second round.

Taking the lead, Lincoln and Zed rushed first, taking the enemy head on while the officers formed a defense line should any of the creatures decided to sneak past the two.

Lincoln put up a front, doing his best to mask his still fearful heart. He also kept a firm belief that what he's doing is truly for good. After all, he did this to save his sisters.

It had taken a while, but he also noticed after several eliminations, he was getting better. No. Adjust.

Subsequently, he also noticed that the creatures aren't exactly the same as each other; the outer rings on their chest differ in color depending on which ones he was fighting.

The clawed ones had a red outer ring, something he already knew about. But the ones with the club-like weapons had blue outer rings. In conjunction with that realization, he noticed that those kinds had a bladed weapon shaped like an 'A'.

The last one took him by surprise with a punch to his back, sending him stumbling forward where he turned around and saw its outer ring. Silver.

Quickly regaining his footing, Lincoln assumed his fighting pose again.

Taking a quick look around him, Lincoln saw that the others were just staying where they were, leering. He returned focus to his assailant and braced himself as it approached him.

Meanwhile, Zed faced off against a smaller group.

Focusing more on keeping his distance, Zed took a more defensive stand in his fight. Opting only to attack after the creatures made their first move which he would almost immediately counter, sometimes followed by quick attacks on any nearby ones.

The only trouble he really had to face were from the weapon-wielders. Because of their range, Zed was forced to constantly shift modes, closing the gap and striking their hands to render them unable to properly use their weapons. This worked well for him against wielders of both weapon types.

But he did have to be more cautious against the ones with the bladed weapons, constantly making sure that he was not in their range, and that he would be able to break through their defenses.

Clearly, he wasn't doing any better than Lincoln, but as with the boy, he was doing his best.

* * *

While the officers and the auxiliary forces fight on outside, the civilians who got injured were being treated from just two rooms apart. Not ideal, but it was the best the officers and medical staffs could do with their limited available space.

Having woken up for the past few minutes, the sisters, as well as Clyde, were receiving treatment for their injuries.

At least, most of the sisters were; a doctor approached the rows of beds they were at, wearing a look of uncertainty on his face.

"Apologies, but I'm afraid that your parents and your sister won't be waking up anytime soon. We've tried-"

The doctor's words were interrupted by the remaining Loud sisters' interjections, expressing their dissatisfaction and demands for the doctor to keep trying.

All except Lisa. She expected something like this to happen. After all, Lori was caught in the blast trying to save her. She was disappointed of herself for letting this happen.

She could only wonder what Linco-

" _Lincoln._ " She suddenly perked up.

Recalling solely from memory of things prior to the explosion, and from her state of semi-consciousness moments ago, she pieced them together and it was without a doubt that she saw him. Or at least, that he was the one behind the orange suit.

" _Did you really have to…?_ " She mused, knowing of no other possibilities about what happened to her brother. " _What will the others think when you have to go? How can I help you with that? I can't tell anyone else… only Clyde and I know…_ "

Speaking of Clyde, the geeky friend of Lincoln wasn't doing much better himself. Much like Lisa, he was quiet, gazing only on one spot.

That of his parents, where they lay unconscious. Tasked with keeping checks on them was a Hispanic nurse, who, after concluding her work for the moment, turned to the boy.

She saw that he didn't even bat an eye on her, not that she expected that to happen, but she was concerned.

Not far from the boy, was her own daughter, sitting quietly and gazing on the floor. Sighing, she walked over to her, giving her a little nudge afterwards.

Looking to her mother, Ronnie Anne quietly said, "Huh?"

The nurse, Maria, motioned to Clyde, asking her daughter to help.

"Why? I don't know what to say." Ronnie Anne protested, unsure of whether she could make any difference.

"You're his friend, aren't you?" Maria asked, "If you are, then shouldn't you help him?"

"Wha-" Ronnie Anne was still uncertain, but ultimately relented from protesting. Sighing, she got up and dragged her chair closer to Clyde, with which the sound of got his attention.

Before speaking up, Ronnie Anne looked one last time at her mother, who nodded. Clyde quirked an eyebrow, waiting for what his friend has to say.

"Hey, uh… I- I know we're never really on good terms… but-"

"Things will be okay." Maria chimed in.

"Y-yeah, things will be okay!" Ronnie Anne said with a faux smile.

Clyde sighed, and looked at the tomboy with a forlorn expression, "It's okay, Ronnie Anne, you don't have to-"

"No!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed, silencing the boy. She groaned and shifted her expression to a calmer one, "Look, I know I was never the best of friend to you guys… but I want to change that. And especially now, when you really need it. I want to make up to you and Lincoln."

Surprised with her words, Clyde stared wide-eyed and mouth slightly hanging. He closed them after and tried to find the right words to use in response.

"We'll do our best, Clyde. You will see your parents again, promise." Maria said in a motherly tone, as she would.

That struck a chord in Clyde's heart, realizing that they really wanted him to feel better and not get depressed at this -hopefully- temporary loss of his parents.

"What do you say?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Yes. That would be great." Clyde smiled. He looked back down for a moment, before glancing over to his dads, and back at the two, "Thanks."

Smiling, Maria nodded before walking away while her daughter, Ronnie Anne, grinned at her success in making Clyde feel better.

Clyde's smile faded and after another glance at his dads, he realized something else. Where was Lincoln?

* * *

Lincoln finished off the last creature he was dealing with a straight punch to its chest and a loud yell, the attack made its target fly back by at least several meters.

Zed on the other hand, was beginning to struggle in his fight. The creatures had nearly broken completely through his defense, reducing his every action to merely dodging their attacks.

Try to; it was inevitable that Zed would eventually suffer an injury one way or another. In this case, he was ambushed by one creature sneaking behind him when his focus was solely on the ones clawing at him.

Taking a claw to his back, Zed grimaced and accidentally stumbled forward, where the rest pounced at him.

Now downed, Zed could only brace himself as the creature pinning him prepared to cut his face off.

It was what would have happened, had it not been for Lincoln tackling said creature away and immediately moving on to the others, dispatching them just as quickly.

He took out almost all of them, until one remained. When that last one approached him, he pulled his fist back, and it just so happens to be done in a way that he briefly hovered it over his belt, causing his fist to emit an orange glow.

He thrust his fist forward, streaking the air with orange, until it connected with the targeted creature whereupon impact, released an almost violent burst of orange energy and sent the creature flying to the wall in which it was buried into.

As the creature disintegrated in the wall crater, Lincoln realized what he had done. It wasn't intentional, he didn't mean for it to go like that. Looking at his fist, Lincoln noted that it was warmer than he would usually like, but it didn't bother him at all.

When he turned around, he saw that the officers had all gathered around him. Policemen and women both. Though, Lincoln was less than glad as of the moment.

That was because he was still uncertain on what would happen to him. In response to his sudden upsurge of panic, he held his hands up defensively while looking away as he blurted out, "Wait! I'm not one of them!"

"What?"

Lincoln looked back to the officers, and after realizing that they meant no harm, chuckled nervously.

"Oh, so you weren't going to take me in for questioning?" Lincoln asked, feeling stupid.

"Why? You just saved us. At least, it made you trustworthy enough." One of them said, whose insignia let Lincoln know that he was the sergeant.

"Oh, thanks." Lincoln sheepishly said.

"No, thank you." Zed chimed in, still dusting himself off after being pinned down.

The group turned to the door leading to the next room, and a group of officers came out from it, looking uncertain as they entered their area.

"Is it over?" One of them asked.

"It is." The sergeant answered.

Relieved, the inquiring officers walked in and only then did they notice the person in orange-suit there. Needless to say, they were shocked.

In the midst of them asking about the others, a slightly limping Lisa who had snuck out of her bed, peeked out from behind the doorway.

There he stood, their only brother, Lincoln Loud, surrounded by a large group of police officers who surprisingly gathered around him in a way that they don't block her view.

She stared at him, fascinated by his armor. But more than that, she was glad to see that her brother was well and alive. Or as she believed what most people would say, alive and kicking. The latter seemed very appropriate to her, given how clear the room had become.

Being the center of attention, Lincoln felt embarrassed and that forced him to shift around uncomfortably in place, looking around as he did so. Soon, he set his eyes on the toddler standing in the doorway.

Lisa smiled as she and Lincoln finally see eye-to-eye -or eye-to-visor- once more, feeling convinced that what Lincoln did, may be the right thing to do after all.

"Lisa!" Said a voice from behind her, prompting the toddler to turn to the source.

"What do you need, elder sister Luna?" Lisa said, putting up her usual demeanor.

"What do you mean? Come on, let's get back over there," The aspiring rockstar asked of her sister, "Besides, what are you look-"

Luna's words fell short when she too, saw the stranger dressed in orange.

"Who is that?" She pointed at said stranger.

"That there, is our savior." One officer said, heading back to the room after inspecting the person in question.

Lincoln's posture had eased up noticeably when he saw Luna come into view, it let him know that at the very least, they were safe. He smiled from behind his helmet, it didn't even matter to him if it was visible to them or not.

Soon, Zed came into the picture, glancing over between Lincoln and his sisters. His arms were crossed, and he had a small smile.

"So, what are you guys doing here?" He asked the two girls.

"Nothing, Mr. Zed, I just wanted to get Lisa back in." Luna answered, with Zed nodding his head.

"Well, I'll make sure Lisa gets back inside, then, you go on ahead. Besides, you need a rest." Zed offered.

"Oh, thanks. But please, be quick." Luna said, which Zed responds to by giving a smile of assurance, then she left.

Once Luna was out of earshot, Lisa cleared her throat and began, "So, you knew something like this would happen?"

"Not exactly." Zed answered.

"Of course you'd say that." Lisa sighed.

"Can't blame you for saying that." Zed replied.

Lincoln watched as the two finally concluded their little 'conversation', and he thought he should at least approach her.

But before another word could be uttered, before another step was to be made by the boy, he felt a tingle down the back of his neck.

Feeling cold sweat running down the side of his face, he scanned around him and saw red mists seeping into the room. He traced it all the way back to the entrance.

Of course he wasn't the only who noticed, the officers, as well and Zed and Lisa, saw it as well. Clear as day.

Lisa's eyes widened as she watched the mist expanded in volume, remembering a similar event earlier today.

"Everybody watch out!" She warned.

Although some of the officers already knew what the mist was, Lisa did still help by alerting the others into preparing themselves for what was about to happen.

The mists then coalesced, forming a humanoid appearance which soon materialized into the creatures. They came by the dozens in number, and the defenders were a little unprepared for this.

But Lincoln didn't need much preparation, and simply relied on his reflexes to help him with incoming attacks. So far, he was doing well on it, but nobody told him that he was wrong to let his powers do everything for him.

Lincoln dispatched a few of them almost easily at this point, while the others struggled to kick themselves back into gear.

One by one, Lincoln managed to eliminate a few more, feeling more and more confident with each one.

He felt unstoppable, his momentum never ceasing to stop as the creatures threw themselves at him.

It remained that way for a few more seconds, before it stopped. Or rather, the creatures did.

Suddenly backing away and standing still, the creatures remained nearly frozen as if they were deactivated by something like a machine.

Though baffled by this sudden turn of events, Lisa never let her guard drop as she slowly peeked out from behind Zed, who had put himself between her and the now frozen creature in front of them.

"What?" She said.

Zed however, couldn't respond as he was more focused on the creatures around him. More specifically, the types that were present. All of them were the red-ringed ones. Before he could comment on it, he felt a strange sensation in his stomach, forcing him to put one hand over it.

"It's coming." He uttered, only enough for Lisa to focus on him.

"What?" Asked the toddler.

Zed immediately carried Lisa and shouted, "Something's coming!"

Naturally, everyone was confused. Something's coming? What?

All of a sudden, a loud sound boomed through from above, followed by shattering of the windows from all the way near the ceiling -which is actually just two-story above ground level-, forcing everyone who weren't armored to shield themselves. Well, Lincoln did the same too, out of reflex.

The event was followed by a brief moment of panic, with everyone looking around with extreme vigilance.

Lincoln was the first to notice it; standing still near the main entrance, it kept its gaze straight ahead. He slowly turned to fully face whatever the thing was, and in turn, the others followed suit.

It looked similar to Lincoln; dressed in a tight bodysuit, black in this thing's case, and sporting an overall armored look. Dialed up to 11 with its crimson body armor, along with boxy pauldrons. Instead of gloves and boots, the creature had full-on gauntlets and greaves, giving it a more complete look than the boy.

But that was nothing compared to its helmet which was slightly elongated than a human head, slightly resembling an animal. Specifically, that of big cats. On its face was a glowing mouthpiece that made it look like it was grinning widely. Complementing that were its yellow eyes, which had this sharp and jagged look to it, effectively making it look like a psycho looking at its next target.

It was exactly that edgy tone to it that unnerved Lincoln, making him tremble and not even realize it.

Slowly, the new creature raised its head and assumed eye contact.

That's what Lincoln felt too; while the others would see the creature looking at Lincoln only on the surface, it felt to the boy as if its gaze pierced right through his visor.

What now?

Whoosh. That was the only thing everyone heard, when the creature disappeared from where it was. To Lincoln, he was unfortunate enough to be able to see where the creature had moved to.

Right in front of him, for only a very brief millisecond, Lincoln stared wide-eyed as the creature seemingly moved in slow motion. His vision ended up fading to black. All he could feel, was an almost weightless sensation.

As if he was being carried in the air…

Before he could even process it, Lincoln found himself skidding on the floor, creating a small trail of destruction.

He tried to get up, but could hardly breathe. Gasping for air, Lincoln looked at the trail, following it all the way until he saw Zed. Unconscious, with a terrified Lisa who looked like she had just barely avoided something.

That something showed itself by reappearing in front of Lincoln, who flinched the moment he registered its presence.

The creature pointed its hand towards the door behind the boy, the latter of which was made confused when he saw it did what it did. Before long, the answer was clear when the creatures began moving, pouring into the room they were in before moving on to pounding on the blast door that was separating the the room from the next one.

When it found out that its troops couldn't do anything, the creature did the dirty deed itself by simply punching the air, which released a strong burst of air that popped the door off its place. It killed anyone who were close, and terrifying all those who saw it.

In a heartbeat, the creatures began flooding into the third chamber and began terrorizing all those who were inside, including the Loud boy's sisters.

Seeing that, Lincoln knew he couldn't stay still for much longer. Turning to his front side, he pushed himself off the floor and tried rushing to his sisters' aid, only to be turned around forcibly by the shoulder where he then took a punch to the face that sent him stumbling backwards into the next room.

Just barely recovering from the attack, Lincoln soon found himself held by the neck as the people all around him were forced on their knees, while those who were bedridden simply had the creatures surround them.

He then felt his head being forcefully turned to face the creature, once again making eye contact. Instead of simply feeling unnerved like last time, Lincoln felt fear. For once, instead of fearing for the others' life, he feared for his own.

With another punch to the gut, Lincoln was left to fall to his knees, holding his stomach with his face planted on the ground, writhing in pain. It rendered him incapable of breathing, and even if he did, he would feel sharp, stinging pain.

In that moment, Lincoln could just barely make out his sisters as they were held hostage. It was like a blow to his confidence; he was so sure that he was going to protect them, and that he was going to succeed, that he never considered the possibility of a scenario such as this where he would be eating dirt.

As the boy continued to struggle, he realized that he was losing his breath; the creature tightened its grip, and it would seem that defeat was obvious. The display of aggression was also clear for everyone to see.

" _I just wanted to save my sisters… how did it come to this? I just wanted… I just wanted this to end…_ " Lincoln thought to himself, losing all hope in continuing the battle.

Just then, a scream was heard, growing louder and louder with each passing second.

It was such a strange occurrence in fact, that the armored creature decided to step outside of the room and closer to the previous ones before coming to a stop just halfway through the second chamber.

As soon as it did however, one of its troops was sent flying to the wall just behind it, which it looked at while still holding Lincoln in its hand.

The creature also considered this to be more important, apparently, as it let Lincoln go, leaving the boy to fall and catch his breath.

Coughing and gasping, Lincoln held his neck and slowly turned to look at the creature, before he too looked to the direction of its focus.

He couldn't see much, except for some of the henchmen creatures being thrown in all directions, crashing into a wall or sometimes, outright burst through them.

The swarm was pushed back, almost effortlessly, by whoever was behind it. It didn't take long at all, for the one responsible to finally reach the creator.

It was a tall man in his 30s or so, who relaxed into a calmer stance. Fearlessly, he looked straight in the armored creature's eyes.

During their silent stare down, Lincoln took the time to inspect the man closely. He was dressed in a very casual clothing. He also sported long, salmon-colored hair just barely touching the base of his neck, as well as parted bangs which covered almost half of his eyes. Green, piercing eyes.

Adding to the man's ferocity, were his injuries; bruises and scars were all over his body, some on his face as well.

Since the armored creature's focus was on the man, he took advantage of it by backing away and getting back up after a considerable amount of distance. He only thought the two were focused solely on each other; instead, they both looked at the boy after he got up.

Again, Lincoln flinched as the eyes of the two were set upon him.

The man looked behind the creature and saw the hostages it had ordered its troops to hold, as well as the unconscious Zed. The creature itself, also looked behind.

Among the hostages, one of them gasped in realization after finally seeing the man's face.

"It's him!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed.

Due to his enhanced hearing, Lincoln looked at the man with surprise.

As the two looked again at one another, the man put his hands over his hip where a belt materialized in a flash of green light.

As if uninterested, the armored creature simply crossed its arms.

Putting both his hands over the circular crystal in the middle, the man then pulled his arms back, fists clenched. Another flash of green light illuminated the room, this time with the man engulfed in a large green sphere.

Both the light and the sphere died out and dissipated respectively, revealing the man in a new form. Now dressed in a full black tracksuit, complete with three lines running down the side, the man stood against the creature. The only hints of armor on him was a body armor that covered his chest and abdomen, morphed in a way that made it look like a human's muscle.

Much like Lincoln, the man had his own pair of white gloves and boots, but the helmet was different. It was designed to look similar to a bike helmet, except for a few details; instead of one big visor, it had two large, red eyes, similar to that of bugs'. In place of his eyebrows were a pair of metallic protrusion that looked like feelers.

That's why Lincoln felt that it looked weird; the design of the man's armor made him look like a bug.

Once more, the man looked at Lincoln and pointed to the civilians, a signal that Lincoln was able to understand. Nodding, Lincoln ran off to do what he knew he needed to, while the man stayed behind and faced off against the armored creature.

Delivering the first attack, the green-armored man delivered a jumping roundhouse kick, which the creature blocked. Following that was an attempt in striking the creature with his elbow, also blocked.

The battle continued, with the man attacking only using kicks and elbow strikes, with occasional backhands. The red fiend itself held against the man without much effort, easily blocking and redirecting its opponent's attacks.

In that time, Lincoln returned to the next room, and gave one last look at the two obviously experienced fighters in the previous room.

The two ran towards each other, before being surrounded by and aura of their respective colors, disappearing moments later in a bright flash of light and a sonic boom. More booms followed, but Lincoln couldn't pinpoint where they were exactly.

"Whoa." He muttered.

Turning again towards the swarm, he narrowly avoided a claw strike aimed at him by ducking under it. As a counter, Lincoln performed a low kick, sweeping across the floor and throwing the creature off its feet, allowing Lincoln to step over it and approach the others.

Now functioning again, the creatures moved away from their place and charged towards Lincoln, whose doubts seemed to have cleared up as he yelled while running head first into battle.

Sliding under the group, Lincoln quickly got up, only to dodge another attack by turning to the side and using his momentum to keep himself spinning until he was facing the right way again. He then pushed his attempted attacker into the others before being swarmed in by a few of them.

Shoving them away from him, Lincoln regained breathing space, using it well while the others were unsure whether to attack him yet.

Meanwhile, now under less supervision, the sergeant reached for his radio and voice a code through it.

The creatures decided to attack; but instead of going one by one, they came in numbers, making sure to attack Lincoln from all sides.

Although his reflexes were heightened, Lincoln found himself struggling against them.

At least he looked amazing in the eyes of all those who watched, being able to even keep up with the creatures taking on him.

Being mobbed was a part of his daily life, but this time, Lincoln was less than okay with this. Before long, he was getting overwhelmed, and his speed was no longer enough.

Just as that happened, Lincoln heard a familiar series of beeps. Looking down to his belt, he felt the need to put his hands over it. So he did, while hunched so as to protect his upper body, before throwing his arms outwards which released a powerful burst of energy that threw the creatures away, almost immediately eliminating them. This included the ones who didn't join the fight.

Giving one last scan around him to make sure the others are okay, Lincoln nodded and ran for the exit. He was stopped when he saw the unconscious body of his school teacher moving, prompting him to crouch beside the man.

"Zed." He called as the man shook his head and groaned.

Looking around, Zed weakly asked, "Lincoln… what happened?"

"I'm going to help in ending this fight." Lincoln declared.

"No, wait-" Zed held a hand up.

"I know that what I'm doing is dangerous, but it's worth a shot!" Stated the boy, getting back up and turning away. Before he walked off however, he glanced one last time at Zed, "And I know you're still keeping secrets from us. I'll ask about it from you, but if I try it with someone who's like me… then maybe I'll get clearer answers."

"Someone like…" Zed said before gasping, knowing what Lincoln meant with it.

"And I know you know this guy, so I hope you can tell me more about him later." Lincoln added, before concluding with, "Right now, I want you to keep my sisters safe."

Rushing outside, Lincoln followed the path leading to the surface, eventually stumbling upon it thanks to the large swarm blocking his way.

Without hesitation, Lincoln launched an unrelenting assault towards the creatures, fighting his way to the outside world that he feared earlier today. He still is afraid, but what can he do?

Finally, Lincoln stepped foot outside as he threw a heavy punch towards a creature he was approaching, sending it flying and causing it to disintegrate mid-air.

Coincidentally, as his eyes followed the creature as it fell, he spotted the two fighters as well, still clashing at one another. It was somewhat unfair as the red fiend would occasionally send in its troops in numbers, usually around three to five.

The green-armored man would easily dispatch them, but it does leave him open to attacks no matter how he goes through them.

"Hey!" Lincoln shouted, gaining theirs as well as several tens more of the creature's attention.

The red fiend, locked in a grappling contest against the man, ordered its troops to attack Lincoln.

Exactly what Lincoln was hoping it would do. Running forward, the boy pounced on the creatures, which with his strength, broke the creatures' balance and yielded a domino effect out of it.

Pushing himself off the one he landed on, Lincoln went over to the others, fighting on in hopes of being able to reach the man and offer him help in taking down the fiend.

Speaking of them, the man could finally resume with full focus on the fight with him and the armored creature. But no matter how he tried, he couldn't quite get past the creature's defenses.

Yet he continued on, throwing kicks after kicks. Every now and again, he would try to get to the creature's blind spot by disorienting it with fake attacks, only to move away quickly and slither behind the creature. It didn't quite work.

Though the creature too, wasn't doing much better, every punch it threw at the man would be shrugged off. They were also similar in terms of speed so that means it would not be able to continuously blitz him from every direction possible.

The man did connect with a few of his attacks, however. One attack was done with him dodging the creature's attacks before using an overshot attack which would throw the creature off balance, allowing him to grab its arm and turn it around so he could attack it from the back. Specifically, with a dropkick that sent the monster stumbling forward.

When the creature turned around, it hadn't fully recovered yet, and the man used the moment to jump on it and lock one leg over its shoulder.

With the creature's balance disrupted, its focus was also compromised which allowed the man to perform a knee drop onto its head, the force of which made the fiend stagger.

Jumping off from the creature's head, the man wasted no time in delivering a flying kick to its head, sending it stumbling backwards. Unfortunately, the man now had to stop and catch his breath, and the creature didn't suffer too serious of an injury following all that.

It appears that the two were evenly matched.

Unwilling to give up yet, however, the man charged once more towards his opponent. He then threw a kick as he got closer, only for it to be caught.

Pulled closer with his leg, the man was then punched numerous times in the face, dazing him. Adding further to his trouble was the creature letting go of his leg, which when coupled with his condition, made it hard for him to regain balance.

Time waits for no one, so doesn't the creature, who stepped closer in an attempt to punch him once more.

This time, it was interrupted when a third member to the brawl pushed its hand upwards, giving it quite the surprise. It only gets worse for it when Lincoln used the moment to throw an energy coated punch at it, successfully stumbling it backwards, this time surprising the man behind him.

"What are you doing!?" The man finally spoke up.

"I want to help you!" Lincoln answered the question.

"I can handle this!" Refused the man.

"I know! But it would be better if we team up! Besides, I can't go down here. Not now! We have to win this, I know we can!"

Although choosing to not reply to the boy's words, the man nonetheless felt skeptical.

Taking several steps backwards, the creature held its face, displaying visible signs of pain when it lightly clawed on the area it was punched at.

Slowly turning to Lincoln, it raised its hand and summoned a small amount of its troops, somewhere around a dozen only. Upon completion of its materializing process, the creatures ran for the bunker.

Shifting his focus, Lincoln tried to intercept, only to find the fiend in front of him.

"Wha-" Was all the boy could let out before taking a punch to his face, knocking the boy down.

"Kid!" The man called out.

* * *

Zed was wandering around restlessly; he didn't want things to escalate this far, but he did play a role in it. He also wanted to keep to his word regarding his sisters because of it, too. He would also sigh a lot, this got the attention of those nearby, including the awakened Loud sisters.

Just before anyone could question his worries, Zed heard the sounds of somewhat distant footsteps.

It was as he feared, the creatures were coming back, and nobody was available to help them.

In response to it, Zed warned the officers and… they were too late, nobody was prepared, and the creatures easily took them down. Not out, down.

Not even Zed was safe as he too, had been incapacitated. With the last of his consciousness, he could see just over half a dozen people being carried away, he was also added into the fray.

* * *

It has been several minutes since the armored fiend decided to beat up on the weakened man, delivering hard strikes with the sole purpose of crippling him. Well, it's working favorably for the creature.

Lincoln did not fare much better; he could barely get up as he laid on his back, with his fingers twitching at times.

The creature's beating of the man stopped only when it heard yells and screams from the bunker, turning around soon after.

Both the downed fighters heard it as well, prompting them to look at the source.

The moment the captured ones came into view, just a good distance away from the entrance, Lincoln's eyes widened. With his surprise, came a brief surge of strength to finally turn to his front side.

"No…" He said, getting the nearby man's attention.

"Let me go!" Luna shouted, struggling in the creature's grip.

On the other hand, the twins were sobbing as they were forced to kneel on the ground.

"It's okay, girls, thing are gonna be okay!" Luna tried to assure them, before she was finally pushed to the ground.

The aspiring rockstar pushed herself off the ground and got into a kneeling position, angrily eyeing the creature that forced her.

Ronnie Anne simply watched, already forced to kneel. She was incapable of breathing properly, she was sweating bullets and her mind was hazy.

The same could be said for Huggins and Shrinivas, who were just beside two other people, another civilian and a policeman.

The red fiend began to raise its hand, only to notice how the young fighter next to it was looking at some of the hostages its troops held. Taking note of his state of panic, the fiend decided to use it. It continued to raise its hand until it was pointed at one of the creatures, who raised its clawed hand.

Lincoln gasped and looked to the fiend. "No!" He said, clinging to its leg.

The red fiend ignored the boy and instead, dropped its hand slightly, giving the signal to its henchman.

One quick swipe from the creature was all it took. A clean cut ran across the back of the officer's neck, and he soon fell to the ground, lifeless. It was something that made the others scream for their lives.

It was especially terrifying for the twins. Thankfully, Luna had already covered their eyes by the time the creature's hand moved.

"I'm scared!" The twins yelled.

The fiend ordered the next execution, and it was done just as quick as it was terrifying for those who were watching.

"Stop!" Lincoln said, practically pleading.

Then it was time for the next one in line, Shrinivas. The creature behind her raised its hand. Before it could however, somebody decided to cause a ruckus.

Standing up and tackling the creature, to no effect, Huggins waved his arms in front of the creature all while shouting at it. They paid no attention to him.

Except for the fiend, who ordered the creature to instead knock Huggins down and pin him in place by slowly forcing a claw into his calf, earning a bloodcurdling scream from the man.

"Dammit!" Lincoln shouted, "Why can't I do anything to this darn thing!?"

Looking back to the line of unfortunate people, Lincoln saw that the fiend decided to skip the two teachers and moved on to one of his sister, Luna.

Not wanting anything to happen to any of his sisters, Lincoln jumped back to his feet thanks to a burst of adrenaline, but couldn't take a few steps before the fiend held him in place which forced the boy to struggle and thrash around.

The fiend briefly let Lincoln go, only to punch him in the back of his head, throwing him to the ground. There, he sobbed, not knowing what else he can do.

With Lincoln down, the fiend finally decided to finish things off once and for all. Pointing to its troops, it ordered all of them to raise their hand in preparation to put down the hostages now that they no longer serve as anything for it.

Swinging its hand downwards, the creature signaled to the others in executing their attacks, deciding the hostages' fate.

That was the plan, which was something Lincoln interrupted by striking on the ground and screamed the loudest he's ever so far. As a result of his rage being released, he also subconsciously sent out a powerful burst energy stemmed from his belt, which did its job in stopping the fiend and its troops from completing their actions.

After being thrown off-balance by the wave, the fiend looked at the boy, who was growling as he clenched his fists tighter. It then felt something hit its face, which didn't phase it at all, then another one on its troops which actually staggered them.

The fiend looked first at its troops, then to where it heard the bullets came from.

From a distance, a couple of snipers had taken position on the roof of a building. They weren't alone either, several cruisers came to a stop somewhere near the entrance to the area. From them, officers poured out, outnumbering the creatures by almost three times their amount.

"Ready. Aim. Fire!" Ordered one of the officers leading the squadron.

While the fiend was unaffected, save for its hand twitching in annoyance. Its troops however, were very much affected by the rounds of gunfire.

"How do you like that?" Lincoln said, masking his anger behind a calm voice. Went as well as you'd think.

Surprisingly enough, despite being under a hail of bullets, Lincoln and the man in green armor did not get hit. In fact, it doesn't appear that they were being targeted at all.

"Really sucks when you're one step to victory, and then it just ends, doesn't it?" Lincoln said with rising intensity. He then clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, growling. Finally, he pointed to the armored creature and declared, "Well guess what, I'm gonna put an end to it!"

With that, Lincoln charged forth, fists raised and ready to throw them at the fiend. In response to him, the red fiend also prepared itself to fight again.

As Lincoln closed in on it, the fiend's focus was solely on him, leaving it unable to predict any surprises done on it. Said surprise came in the form of the green warrior speeding past it, which swayed its guard when it looked to the man.

Usually, it would be considered unfair to take an enemy by surprise, but Lincoln could not care any less at this point; while the fiend still has its eyes somewhere else, Lincoln put his fists over his belt, causing them to glow orange. Reeling one back, Lincoln clenched his fist tightly and rotated his hip, throwing forward a punch that even the fiend took too long to react to, resulting in a powerful crash that released a wave of energy and pushed back the creature by a considerable amount.

Not finished yet, Lincoln continued by throwing a volley of punches, greatly dazing the monster.

Finishing the officers' job, the man in green took out the red fiend's damaged troops, finally releasing the hostages from their grip.

Standing still with his back turned on the hostages, the man watched as Lincoln continued to hand the fiend its own backside.

"Are you guys okay?" Luna asked the twins.

"Yeah." They answered.

Sighing, Luna said with great relief, "Thank goodness. Oh, thank goodness!", then hugged her sisters.

Ronnie Anne stared at the man in front of them as he took up a stance. One side faced forward, with the front-facing leg stretched forward and the other bent. His arms were also outstretched, pointing forward and behind, before bringing them close in a spinning motion, placing them diagonally apart by centimeters. His legs were then coated in swirling green energy.

The girls, including Mrs. Shrinivas and the injured Huggins watched as the light around the man's legs began to intensify.

"I have the target in sight." One of the sniper said.

"Fire at will." Ordered said sniper's commanding officer.

Without further delay, the sniper fired away, something the fiend easily swatted away despite its weakened condition.

Being in the direction of where the bullet was swatted, Lincoln ducked under it and watched as it approached the man who was seemingly still charging his attack while looking down.

Just meters away from him however, the man looked forward and performed a spinning kick which redirected the bullet again towards the fiend at greater speed. Though it was not visible by anyone else, those directly involved in the battle saw that it was coated in green energy.

Which was exactly what further injured the red fiend, striking it at the chest and forcing it on its knee.

Yelling, the man charged forward at blinding speeds, leaving a strong gust of wind after his departure.

Closing in the gap between them, the man jumped at three quarters of the total distance between him and the fiend, extending one leg as his momentum propelled him towards the creature in a flying kick and streaking the sky with green energy throughout the process.

The whole event was viewed in slow motion in the boy's eyes.

Upon contact between the man's foot and the fiend's face, it began projecting a green light from its hands and mouth as it began to convulse. Then, a large explosion broke out which shook the ground in a large radius from epicenter, breaking the balance of everyone affected by it.

Another result of the explosion was a large cloud of dust kicked up by it, forcing everyone to shield their eyes and mouths.

Lincoln however, didn't need to do so, and instead kept quiet. From where he is, the dust cleared up quicker and he soon saw the man standing, with noticeable difficulty in breathing.

Walking closer, Lincoln thought of something to say. He stopped a few steps away when the man looked over to him.

Without caring for his identity, the man morphs out of his suit, reverting back to his regular appearance.

Preparing himself mentally, Lincoln asked…

" **Who are you?"**

 _End of Chapter._

* * *

 **End Notes: Okay, so what did you think? Did I mention that this one is long because we're halfway through the arc? And that I decided an extended chapter should be able to do the job here. Well?**


	7. Knowing

**Author's Notes: Here it is, Chapter 7. Now, I'm only uploading this as a way to tell you guys that I haven't gone completely inactive yet. And to that third reviewer, thank you.**

 **The upload of this chapter does not guarantee that I'll be back. Not yet, at least. As of this chapter's upload, I'm still working on Chapter 11. I might continue on a little bit until the end of the arc, but I'll definitely be on pause still after this, and after the arc.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7. Knowing**

"Oswald."

"Huh?" Lincoln perked up slightly.

"My name; it's Oswald." The man cleared up.

"Who are you?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Zed had just arrived at the surface after limping his way there, just in time to see the reinforcement police squad to reach them.

He saw Luna, the twins and the other survivors being helped up. They noticed him, and he forced a smile.

He and the others shifted their focus to the Orange Fighter and the salmon-haired man walk past them, and towards the parking lot.

Being the first to snap out of it, though it was more because his injuries began acting up, Zed looked back to the nearby crowd.

Clearing his throat, he got their attention, "Alright, let's wrap things up around here."

* * *

"And you ended up doing this because of Zed?" Oswald recapped as he made his way to a dark green motorcycle, having been informed of the boy's relationship with the man.

"In a way." A voice spoke out.

The two looked behind them and saw Zed walking towards them.

By then, Oswald had gone quiet, simply staring at Zed. Lincoln glanced between the two.

Lightly sighing, Oswald turned to the jean jacket on the seat and grabbed, putting it on afterwards. Without another word, he started up his bike and rode off. Outside, he somewhat alarmed the ones there.

Back with the two, Lincoln slowly looked over to Zed, whose attention was still towards the exit.

"So," Lincoln began, getting the man's attention, "Who exactly is Oswald?"

"What did he tell you?" Zed raised his eyebrows.

"Well, he told me that what I'm asking for is a bit too hard."

"What would that be?"

"That I wanna fight to protect people."

"How is that impossible?"

"Because he thinks it just is."

Zed nodded at that last line, and decided to not push on it further. Though, he does find something worth addressing.

With a small sigh, he stated, "We need to figure out how to you back in. But first, you're gonna need to get that armor off first."

Lincoln simply said, "Huh, you're right.", before looking down to see his belt. He moved the buckle around and was engulfed in an orange light.

After the light disappeared, Lincoln was back to his normal self. He didn't feel much damage, but signs of his injuries were still present, something they both noticed.

Once done, Lincoln remarked with a smile, "Neat, and I think I have an idea, too."

* * *

It had been several minutes since Luna and the twins were reunited with their sisters. It went exactly as how it usually does; they were asked if they're okay and so on.

But things weren't all fine and dandy for them.

That was until, something happened.

While the girls were having a somber reunion, they failed to notice and in turn, expect their brother's timely return.

"Hello there!" Zed called out, smiling and waving to the girls. But it was the person he was supporting that got their full attention.

By his side, was Lincoln, limping and struggling to keep himself upright.

"Lincoln!" They all shouted, but couldn't find the strength to move over to him.

Thankfully, Zed had their backs on this.

By the time the two got to the sisters, Lincoln found himself hugged by the others. Many of whom ignored the medics' advice to not strain themselves. But they couldn't care less.

Maybe Lisa, at least. Lincoln took note of her once he broke off from the hug.

He gave her a smile, which she returned.

* * *

"So, you were adorned in a clothing that acted as an armor of sorts," Lisa recapped, "And not only that, but you also received extreme physical augmentations that allowed you to fight of those creatures?"

It was clear from the genius' words that she didn't quite believe him yet, so Lincoln shook his head and replied, "Yes, that's what happened. Those creatures, too, they were crazy. They dodged bullets!"

"Such is an impossible act, yet with everything I've seen, it has started to become fascinating. Alright, perhaps you can show me some things and I may be able to gauge your capabilities."

"Whatever you say, Lise." Lincoln shrugged and looked at her with a smile.

* * *

"So you were out there fighting? That's cool! Man, I wished I could've seen that!" Lynn excitedly asked Zed after he finished telling his side of the story.

"Whoa, trust me, you don't wanna." Zed held his hands up, seated in front of a curtain. "Especially not after all that." He added, briefly glancing over to Luna.

Lynn also took note, and said in a quieter tone, "Oh, right. Sorry."

"It's okay." Luna said, glad that Lynn relented anyway.

"But I'm still confused." Leni pondered out loud.

"What is it?" Luan asked, holding Lily in her hands who also looked at the klutz with curiosity.

"What happened to that guy in orange?" Leni continued, before remembering something else, "Is he okay after that?"

"Well, Imma be honest. That dude, man, bro is probably busy and even if he's hurt, he might not want to trouble any of us."

Before long, Zed took note of the happenings on the other side of the curtain. He looked behind him and thought this might be a good thing.

Another minute passed, and the curtain was opened, revealing Lori who sat up on her bed. She seemed down the short moment she was like that before she noticed them.

"Hi guys." She greeted them, giving a smile afterwards.

"Lori!"

"How are you feeling?" Zed asked.

"So far, I'm okay."

"Then, that means you get to go home, right?" The twins excitedly asked.

Instead of answering, Lori looked down and stuttered.

"Well, her legs are damaged." Zed answered for them.

"No!" The others cried out in disappointment.

"Sorry." Lori said with equal disappointment in her voice. She then looked over to Zed, "Thanks for bringing Lincoln back, though."

Before Zed could respond, Lucy chimed in, "Speaking of which, how did Lincoln ended up in the parking lot?"

Zed smacked his lips and answered, "Uh well, I managed to sneak him out. Really, it's a miracle. Just like how you guys are okay!"

Instead of making things better, he found that the others were once more, unhappy with how things have ended up for them.

Sighing, Zed tried to ease them, "Hey, come on. Let's try not to drag ourselves back into the abyss, okay? Look, I've said this a lot, but we need to keep ourselves in check now. More than ever now. So please, keep your hopes up, and remember: you guys are pretty lucky when compared to some others."

This time, Zed's words seemed to have done the trick. The girls were starting to believe him somewhat, and it was enough for him.

Lincoln was also there, having walked in with Lisa just in time, to hear Zed's last line.

* * *

After a couple more days later, once Lori's condition was confirmed as to whether she needed further care or not. Obviously it was the former.

Driving the girls home was Zed, who was asked to bring them home. He didn't agree to it, but didn't decline, either.

It was at least a ten minutes drive from the police department to the neighborhood. Once they arrived, Zed pulled Vanzilla up their driveway and stopped the car there.

Turning his head to the others, he gave a small smile.

"Well, you're home."

* * *

To inaugurate their return, the de facto head of the house, Luna Loud, turned the doorknob and pushed it open. She expressed a look of surprise before walking in to let the others see it as well. The inside of the house.

Putting it simply, it was messy. To elaborate, everything was where they shouldn't be be, furniture tumbled around, decorations fell or were greatly displaced.

"Wow. We need to clean this place up." Luna said in response to the condition of the house.

"Need a hand?" Zed asked.

"Well, we're gonna need all the help we need, so why not?" Luna accepted.

With that, the cleanup began. Everyone had to partner up with another and had their own designated location. The majority of the girls worked upstairs.

Lincoln and Zed were partnered together and had the living room to clean up.

"So, what are you gonna do after this, Mr. Zed?" Lincoln sparked.

"Well, I'm going back to school and try to salvage some things there. Like your bags." Zed told him.

"Oh, right."

"What will you do?" Zed asked in return.

"I don't know, maybe get some rest? Or some fresh air." Lincoln answered with a shrug.

Afterwards, Zed nodded and the two continued on.

Nothing else happened in the duration of their work. Except for the twins fighting after a while which resulted in them having to take care of Lily and watch as everyone finished.

By the end of it all, the gang needed only to return the living room's furniture back in place. The couches, for example.

Once the smaller one was set back in place, Luna, Leni and Lincoln looked over to the larger one. They tried to catch their breaths again before continuing. Except for Leni, who was fine even though she supported just as much.

"Okay, one more." Luna said.

Zed then came back in after throwing the trash and walked over to the couch saying, "I got it."

Without much effort, he turned it upright and lifted it up just over his knees, carrying it over to where Luna pointed him to.

"Done." He said.

"H-How did you-"

"How did you do that!?" Lynn asked.

"Now, now, I can answer that any day. But first, are we done here?" Zed asked, putting his hands on his hip.

"I believe we are done here, but there are still more internal damages done on the house." Lisa said.

"I can help with the pipes." Lana spoke up.

"I can get you guys the necessary items for repairs." Zed said.

"Oh, you don't really need to-"

"Too late. Besides, I have things to do so, see you guys later, and get some rest." Zed shook his head and made his way to the door.

"Good idea, because I'm all splintered!" Luan joked, holding up a finger where a splinter was stuck in, before she winced, "But seriously though, this hurts, can anyone get me a tweezer?"

"I can help." Leni said, running upstairs to her room.

After their guest have left, the girls expressed their exhaustion and took to where they can rest themselves. Lincoln however, didn't feel too tired.

Turning to the door, he walked to it.

"Where you going, bro?" Luna asked, seated on the couch.

"Oh, I just wanted to go out for a bit."

"Be careful, okay?" Luna advised.

With a smile, Lincoln nodded and made his way out.

* * *

After a while, Lincoln ended up in town. There, he found how the people around him have already returned to their lives, living as if nothing much had happened. But he knew it wasn't true. Not for them, not for him.

He sighed at the thought.

Out of the blue, his phone rang. Picking it up, he found that it was a message. From Clyde.

It read: " _Hi buddy! Sorry I couldn't come along with you guys, I just wanted to keep my dads company. Ronnie Anne's mom is nice, she takes care of me. Speaking of Ronnie Anne, she went back home with Bobby. I think I should, too. But I'll see what happens first. First thing tomorrow, I'm going back home and make sure it's clean again. But until then, hope you're doing well!_ "

"Heh, hope you're doing well, too, buddy." Lincoln said. Alone.

While he was thinking of how to respond, he was also unknowingly being led somewhere. During his unintentional off-course veering, his belt glowed. Before the boy knew it, he was set to crash.

Bumping into a wall with a grunt, Lincoln backed away and held his nose.

Groaning, he looked forward, "What the hay-"

He stopped mid-sentence and looked up. Somehow, he had ended up outside of a damaged parking garage. Confused, he looked around before settling his eyes on a nearby entrance.

" _How did I get here?_ " The boy thought to himself as he walked to the entrance.

Once there, he turned his head to the interiors. He immediately gasped after seeing what was going on inside and retreated behind covers.

His eyes widened.

Gathering the courage to look back, he peeked out from the side and saw Oswald zipping up a bunch of bags filled with something.

"What is he doing?" Lincoln said to himself.

He then saw Oswald pull something out of his jacket. Thinking of the worst, he gasped, causing Oswald to perk up, and for him to panic, and forced him back behind the wall.

Oswald, having pulled out a box of cigarettes with one already popped out, noticed something. Or rather, someone, not too far from him. He was also quite alerted, simply not expecting anyone for the moment. He pushed the one cigar back in and returned the packet into his jacket, turning around soon after.

"Who's there?" He called out.

Silence.

"Kid? Is that you? How'd you find me here?" He assumed.

Which worked, as Lincoln panicked even more. But then he realized something.

"Wait a minute, why am I scared of him?" He voiced his realization.

"You better come out." Oswald threatened, which felt strange to Lincoln.

"Wait, wait! I'm coming out!" Lincoln said, announcing and confirming his presence as he walked out -or in- to let Oswald see him. For some reason, he seemed surprised.

"Oh, it really was you." He said.

"Yep. 'S me." Lincoln nervously said.

"What do you want?"

"Uhm, what are you doing?"

Oswald's expression immediately shifted to a more serious one after the question. He stared at the boy a few more seconds in silence before he made up his mind for what to say.

"Come with me."

Finding no reason other than the bags, Lincoln braved himself and walked forth. After a moment, he sped up and finally caught up to Oswald, who was heading towards a dumpster.

"What are we doing here?" He asked as Oswald moved close to the dumpster.

Looking at Lincoln, Oswald answered, "This.", as he moved the thing away, revealing a corpse behind it.

The sight made Lincoln gag and turn around in an instant.

"What!?" He yelled out.

"Well, you might be wondering as to why Zed can still be optimistic even after the attack." Oswald began.

"W-What?" Lincoln asked.

"Sometimes, not many people seem to know about it unless they are family or friends. Even then, they may not have much of either to start with. Zed… just wanted make sure you don't have to go through these."

" _You guys are pretty lucky when compared to some others._ "

Those words rang inside Lincoln's head.

Lincoln then saw Oswald walk past him. Following suit, he looked to the man, all while actively keeping his gaze away from the corpse.

"So, how long have you been doing this?" He asked.

"Just got to it around yesterday, I thought I should do something about the body count out he-" Oswald absentmindedly went.

"No. I meant how long have you been out fighting?"

"It's been a while." Oswald said as he came to a stop.

"How are you okay with everything? How did you adjust? To your powers and to the things around you?"

"It took me time, that's for sure." Answered the man as he crouched down and set the body on one of the bags.

"...What are you fighting for?"

"To end those creatures once and for all." Oswald slowly began zipping up the body.

"W-What are we fighting?"

"Conquerors. Destroyers. Nihilists. Those things, they won't stop until who knows what. But I want to make sure that their efforts will never come into fruition. I used to fight alongside Zed, but after he left... progress slowed down. I'm afraid it might stop. I don't know why was it he stopped 8 years ago. He ran awa-"

Oswald stopped after seeing Lincoln holding his head in pain. Not knowing why, he cocked an eyebrow.

"You alright?" He checked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Lincoln tried to regain his composure, believing solely that it was because of the amount of information given to him by Oswald.

"Wait, so Zed was like us?" Lincoln asked, finally noticing that part.

"Yes."

"So what happened?"

"...I don't know."

The two went quiet afterwards. With Lincoln not knowing what to say, and Oswald not wanting to reminisce.

"So, wha-"

Boom. Their conversation was interrupted when an explosion shook the place which alerted the two, nearly breaking Lincoln's balance, but didn't even phase Oswald.

Without another word, Oswald ran off.

"Wait up!" Lincoln said, chasing after the man, "They're attacking again!? This early!?"

"This is no weekly monster attack we're facing here."

* * *

After a few minutes, the two arrived at the highest they could get, what with the roof having been blown off completely.

Oswald looked over the damaged barrier and saw a large cloud of black smoke rising. Lincoln did the same, and expressed a clear look of surprise.

From where they are, they could see people running away from the location of the explosion. But one group did the opposite, driving past the crowd and stopping just some distance away from the building the two were on.

From the car, exited two people, a woman and a man, the latter holding a camera.

"Good afternoon, citizens of Royal Woods! This is Katherine Mulligan reporting in live for the first time since the Hexon attack back in Monday."

Back with the duo at the parking garage; Oswald raised a brow and questioned, "Hexon?"

"That was the name the police came up when thinking about what to designate them as." Lincoln shrugged, unsure of the name as well.

"How did you know this, from Zed?" Oswald assumed, half-heartedly believing his own words.

"From Zed." Lincoln confirmed it.

Oswald stared into blankness and sighed as he jumped over from the railing and fell to the ground below.

"What the!?" The boy exclaimed.

It just so happened the news crew heard just enough to get them to turn around and had the camera pointed at Oswald, who landed safely. In a crater.

Lincoln sighed in relief.

Getting back up, Oswald walked forward and summoned his belt. He put one hand over the item and scanned across, transforming in a flash of green light.

Gasping, Katherine announced, "There he is, ladies and gentlemen, The Green Blur!"

They noticed that his focus was fixed, so they followed it until they reached the other side, where they could just barely make up two mysterious figures.

While unclear to the news crew, to Lincoln they were. One was humanoid, adorned in a similar armor as the red fiend, but the armor was silver. Accompanying it was a bizarre sight, a mutated iguana.

Lincoln soon realized that he was being awfully idle during all this, and jumped over the barrier as well. But he hasn't transformed.

He realized that in mid-air, and screamed as he fell. His belt then emitted a flash of orange light that engulfed Lincoln.

The news crew turned around to see the orange ball of light touch the ground. When it disappeared, it revealed someone that definitely was the best surprise yet.

"Here he is! The Royal Woods Ranger!" Katherine announced.

Lincoln finally opened his eyes and found that he was safe and in his armor. He saw the news crew and seeing their faces assured him that he didn't get into anything embarrassing.

Standing up proudly, Lincoln ran off to join Oswald.

By now, Oswald was more than ready to just end it then and there. Starting first, he rushed forward and initiated the attack by throwing a roundhouse kick to the humanoid, which was blocked.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw the iguana whip its tail towards him. Reeling back his kicking leg, he rolled away and had the humanoid block the attack for him.

He quickly got back up, and was ready to throw his next attack. But the creature raised its hand hands, stopping Oswald and getting the mutant to stand down.

"You expect mercy?" Asked the man.

"Do not talk down to me like that," Sternly said the creature, "No. I know we're enemies, but I'd like to introduce myself still."

"On with it." Oswald said with a clear hint of anger.

"Korax, Major Commander of the Hexe Fleet."

"And I'm Oswald. I just wanna defeat you."

Korax expressed his disgust through a scoff and declared, "Very well. You would be a good kill anyway, you're a stain on the glorious pages of The Fleet. We shall see victory in a fair fight!"

"Fair fight? 2-on-1? We'll see about that-"

"Hold right there!" Lincoln said out of the blue, stopping both the fighters. "You're not gonna do anything!"

"Lincoln, be careful, always keep your guard u-"

"Attack." Korax ordered his company on the boy.

"Wait, what?" Lincoln said, before the Iguana tail whipped him away.

Oswald put on a sour look on his face as Lincoln took a small beating.

"Now, let's continue our 'fair' fight." Korax spoke up.

Oswald sighed and prepared to engage in proper combat.

* * *

The Loud sisters' eyes were glued on the TV, watching intently as the events shown began to unfold. Everyone was there, except for Leni, Luna, and Lana.

Shown on the screen, was the Ranger being bounced around as the Iguana relentlessly thrashed around while Lincoln was still in its grip.

"Ugh, he doesn't seem to stand much chance, doesn't he?" Lynn said.

" _Come on, Lincoln. Show me_ _w_ _hat you've got._ " Lisa thought.

"He sounds a bit familiar." Lucy commented.

"How so?" Lynn turned to Lucy.

"The screams; it sounded similar to Lincoln's." Lucy explained.

"What? Oh, right, and I'm the red creature." Lynn sarcastically remarked on Lucy's observation.

Eyeing the jock up and down, Luan spoke in reference to her clothes' color scheme, "Well, I wouldn't be surprised."

Lynn chuckled for a bit, before she realized what the joker meant, "Hey!"

Lisa however, didn't take the goth's words so lightly. She briefly looked over to her before looking back at the TV.

It now shows the Ranger fending the creature off the Iguana's attacks. So far, he was doing well enough.

The sisters' attention was once more taken when the door opened, and in came Luna and Leni from it. The former looked frustrated while the latter eyed her sister with concern.

"No sign of him?" Luan asked.

"No, no signs about Lincoln." Leni said with disappointment.

"Leni, that's not..." Luna said, but relented with a sigh.

"What's going on there?" Leni asked, pointing to the TV, before she and Luna walked to the others.

With the addition of the two, the group was back to watching the TV. Everyone did so with great anxiety now that they know their brother was still out there, vulnerable.

Except Lisa, maybe, she simply played along with the others. But nevertheless, she was worried all the same.

* * *

Lincoln put his fist over his belt and charged it up, giving it an orange glow. He then rushed forward and ducked under a long-reaching arm swipe before throwing a punch, aimed straight at the Iguana's chest.

The punch connected, and it pushed the creature away with a large burst of energy.

Skidding across the battlefield, the creature shrieked throughout. It eventually stopped itself by digging its claws into the ground.

Lincoln wasted no time running forward and taking hold of the dazed creature.

Shaking the creature around, Lincoln managed to overpower it with his own might. Soon, he had the creature in a headlock.

With a wrestling move in mind, Lincoln yelled out as he took off, dragging the mutant along by its head.

Once his momentum was enough, Lincoln jumped forward, slightly launching both he and the mutant into the air. In a moment, they were going back down, and Lincoln loosened his grip to put one hand over the back of the mutant's head.

The move ended with Lincoln landing on his bottom, and the creature on its face. It wasn't to say that Lincoln was completely fine, though.

"Ow, probably should have thought twice about that." Lincoln said as he got up, rubbing his butt in slight pain.

"Amazing! Looks like our hero is handling well by himself!" Katherine commentated from afar, getting the boy's attention.

"Oh, haha. Well, I can't say I would have known all that without Lynn and Ronnie Anne." Lincoln said to himself. "Without them I'd-"

Lincoln stopped himself there, remembering what he was there for in the first place.

Right, without any of them he couldn't have known about any of that. Or at least, he wouldn't know to apply those knowledge.

Maybe he should start taking it seriously now. Not that he wasn't before, just that-

Before he could finish thinking, Lincoln was slapped away by the tail of the mutant.

During his time in the air, where everything slowed down for him, he thought of how long he had been idle.

Another surge of pain struck him as he landed on the other end of the street. But what got his attention was the building nearby.

The parking garage.

Lincoln turned to it and saw the entrance from that side of the building. He then looked back to the mutant, now on all fours and running towards him at great speed.

Considering the distance, Lincoln realized that if he had been out of his armor, he'd be-

Another tail whip snapped him out of his thoughts and into the building behind him.

Inside, Lincoln struggled to get up, and saw the mutant approaching. More important than that, was the news crew behind it. They were still some distance away, yes, but it reminded him of something.

He was live; people are watching his battle. Him, an inexperienced fighter. What impression can he make?

Before he knew it, the mutant pounced on him.

He tried his best to break free of its grip, but found his mind becoming clouded as he continued to think of whether he can win this in the end.

After a couple more minutes, the news crew had arrived at a distance where they can just make out the scene.

"What an unexpected turn of events! One moment our protector had the upper hand, but right now he seems to be struggling to break free!"

While trying to think of something else to say, the anchorwoman found something else of note within the building.

With a gasp, she continued, "The police have assured us that everyone was safe, but we are picking up what appears to be body bags!"

Body bags...

Lincoln heard the woman's words, and turned to look to his side despite the mutant still trying to claw into his face. He saw it, the bags. He even bore witness to one of them being zipped up into one of the bags.

If he hadn't been there, at the bunker, he wouldn't have been able to save his sisters. If he wasn't able to, he wouldn't have found the strength to win.

Looks like it was true after all; it doesn't matter why, or how he was going to do it, he will protect everyone.

He has to!

With a renewed view on his belief, Lincoln mustered every ounce of strength he had and began to overpower the mutant once more.

With a loud yell, Lincoln put all his might into pushing back the mutant, all while getting himself up. Even after that, he still had enough in him to continue, leading the creature outside in a short time.

Once outside, Lincoln shoved the mutant away.

"No matter what, I _will_ be there to stop the likes of you." Lincoln proclaimed.

His belt started flashing rapidly afterwards, getting the boy to look at it. After a brief moment, Lincoln could feel his right leg swelling with energy.

It felt warm, but also a little numb. Instinctively, he knew only one thing to do with it.

Snapping back forward, Lincoln set his eyes on the creature and pointed at it.

Having watched everything, Katherine finally started, "Oh, it looks like the Ranger is getting ready to end it!"

"Hah!" Lincoln yelled as he charged forth.

In a short moment, the gap was closed, and the mutant was coming into range. The battle was decided.

A leg's distance away, Lincoln stopped, pushing his foot forward and throwing a front kick. It struck the mutant by its stomach, releasing a powerful energy burst and sending the creature flying back by several yards.

Lincoln was still in his post-kick stance, and was trying to catch his breath after all that. That attack took a lot out of him.

Looking slowly to the mutant, he found it laid on its back, unmoving. He did it.

He wanted to confirm its status, but remembered that he wasn't alone out here. Shifting his focus to the distance, he slowly pushed himself to go forward.

Unbeknownst to the boy, the opposing force had one more trick up their sleeves.

Far off on the other side of the battlefield, Oswald relentlessly delivered an unending rounds of attacks to the commander, giving him no time nor chance to fight back.

Every kicks and the few elbow strikes he dished out, they were aimed to cripple the creature.

After a few more devastating kicks aimed at the commander's head and arms, which had been his primary offense and defense, Oswald gave a jumping kick which released a strong energy burst as it pushed the commander away.

Widening his stance, one leg straight and pointed to his enemy and the other bent, Oswald was just about ready to end it.

Within a short burst, he covered a quarter of the distance before jumping up, where he then extended one leg forward, ready to deliver his finishing move.

Throughout his run, Lincoln had been focused on Oswald. So much so that he forgot to look behind.

When he did realize something was coming his way, it was a close call as he barely rolled away from it. Looking to the source, he could see the mutant supporting itself on all fours as it launched its super-extended tongue. Following again the tongue, Lincoln set his eyes just in time to see it wrap itself around Oswald's foot.

Realizing this in mid-air, Oswald couldn't do much before he was dragged back to the ground, the force of which dug his foot into it.

"What the-" Was all Oswald could say before the mutant reeled in its tongue a bit, essentially tripping him.

Down there, he heard Korax laugh lightly, forcing Oswald to look to him.

"Well, I wanted a fair fight, but clearly you are still superior when compared to me. For that, I thank Barzal's creation in saving me." Said the commander before he turned away. Before leaving however, he said one last thing, "Besides, there will always be another time."

Oswald gasped before shouting out loud, with a heavy English accent surfacing, "Oi! Git back 'ere you lil' bugger!"

Slamming his fist on the ground and cratering it, Oswald growled as he scooped up a small piece of the crater he made and turned to his back, taking aim at the mutant.

Taking a deep breath, he yelled as he then flicked the piece, launching it as a projectile which lodged itself between the creature's eyes. It recoiled in pain and released the furious man.

Slamming again his hand on the ground, Oswald got up and proceeded to zip across the battlefield.

Once there, he took hold of the mutant and yelled, before throwing his fist towards it.

* * *

Back home, all the remaining sisters watched on as the TV showed an enraged warrior beating on what is now a helpless creature. Following every attacks, were screams of a very infuriated man.

Suddenly, they all heard the back door open.

Knowing who it is, Lola jumped off the couch and went over to greet the person.

"Lana!" Lola called, giving said sister a surprise.

"Oh, hey Lola." Replied the animal lover, sounding more down than usual.

"What's wrong? You didn't find them?" Asked the diva, showing concern.

"I looked for them since afternoon, Lola! If I did, they would have been here with me!" Lana groaned in frustration.

"Sorry." Lola said, but Lana rolled her eyes in distrust over her sincerity.

After another loud yell, Lana finally took note of the things shown on TV.

"What's that?" She asked, walking over to the couch and taking a look.

But all she saw was needless violence against an animal that had no way to defend itself.

"What's he doing!?" Lana cried out.

"Calm down, it's not what you think it is." Lola tried.

"No! I think it's pretty clear!" Lana spat.

"Dude, what's going on with you?" Luna asked, a little annoyed.

Groaning, Lana simply ran off upstairs where she then shouted, "It's not right what he's doing!"

"What?" The others raised their eyebrows.

Sighing, Lola answered, "Lana said she was going to look for the pets again, but..."

"Oh." Luna said simply, knowing well how that went.

"Guys, look!" Lynn called to the others.

Running back to the couch, they were just in time to see the next course of events.

"He stopped." Leni said.

* * *

Oswald tried to steady his breathing, and bore witness to his own doing.

There in front of him, the mutant barely had any strength to fight back, let alone keep itself standing.

Oswald sighed and placed a hand on his forehead, shaking his head.

"Alright, time to end this." He declared, with a hint of sympathy.

Stomping lightly, the ground just in front of his foot glowed green.

Lincoln, who had been watching, perked up as Oswald did something.

A long cylindrical rod was created, leaving a small crater on where it was made from.

Tapping it twice, Oswald kicked the item inwards, catching it mid air with the other hand. He picked the weapon up and positioned it in a way that his thumbs were under while the other fingers made light contact on the handle. Sliding his hands apart, the weapon was covered in a bright green light, catching Lincoln and the news crew's attention. By extension, so were the viewers'.

Once the light was gone, the weapon appeared slimmer and shorter, looking more like a long piece of thin rectangular bar. A golden bar with a green line in the middle joined by a ring in the center.

Instead of doing the job himself, Oswald set the rod aside and motioned for Lincoln to come over.

The boy pointed to himself and did a double take with the nearby news crew, who seemed more excited to see what would happen.

Somewhat reluctantly, Lincoln jogged over to the more experienced fighter and looked at him.

Without much idea on what to do, Lincoln was handed the weapon, giving him quite the surprise. Not that he couldn't hold it, but it was all so strange for him.

"What should I do?" Lincoln asked, holding the rod closely.

"Widen your stance," Oswald instructed, the boy did as he asked, "One leg pointed to the front. One side bent."

Again, Lincoln physically repeated the man's instructions.

"Amazing! It appears that the Green Warrior is teaching our town's hero!"

"One hand down here." Oswald pointed to the bottom end of the weapon, where Lincoln moved his hand to. "Good. Now, the other one over here."

He pointed at the handle, and Lincoln followed his order.

"What am I doing?" Lincoln asked, still uncertain.

"If I'm not wrong, you can also channel your energy into something. Namely, your limbs. But I believe you can do it with a conduit." Oswald explained.

"C-Conduit?" Lincoln repeated.

"Mhm," Oswald said, before he began, "Now."

"Wait." Lincoln tried to ready himself.

"Get set. Ease up, boy." Oswald continued, ignoring the boy.

"Hold on!" Lincoln could feel his heartbeat picking up.

"Ready or not..."

At this moment, Lincoln started to calm down, just a bit. But he happened to realize something, that he was beginning to feel pumped up.

"Charge and strike!" Oswald yelled out, which boomed across the area.

With a yell of his own, Lincoln took off from where he was, and stopped just in front of the mutant where his weapon lit up with a bright coat of orange energy. Swinging diagonally downwards, the rod struck the creature by the shoulder, overloading it with energy.

Once it peaked, the energy buildup from inside the creature burst, leading to a massive explosion that rose skywards in a large pillar of energy.

The heat released was so intense that the camera's signal was beginning to get messed up, and cause extreme physical discomfort to the news crew, forcing them to back away.

"Whoa, what a spectacle!" Katherine remarked on the extreme display of power.

Meanwhile, they found that the Green Warrior hadn't even moved away despite his distance from the explosion.

Another half a minute passed, and the pillar died down. Down in the middle, Lincoln stood, stiff and unmoving. He was still stuck in the pose he was in when he delivered his finishing strike.

It took a round of surprised gasps to finally snap him out of it. The first thing he noticed was, understandably, not the fact that his weapon was gone, but that he was still alive.

Inspecting himself, Lincoln began whooping, before he finally expressed himself, "I-I'm alive!"

"Uh-huh." Oswald said, walking past the boy.

Laughing joyously, Lincoln held himself tightly -essentially hugging himself- and jumped around.

But after another minute or two, Lincoln spotted Oswald coming back, but now with something in his hand.

"What's that?" Lincoln pointed at the green floating orb in the man's hands.

"This?" Oswald raised the orb slightly, before answering, "It's nothing."

"Oh." Lincoln said as Oswald continued on in his way.

As he was turning back around to re-enter the parking garage, the news crew got in his way, both microphone and camera were pointed at him.

"Excuse us, sir, but a word, please?" Katherine requested.

Oswald glanced over the anchorwoman and the cameraman, Oswald then looked directly into the camera, his face as serious as ever.

He spoke up, "Listen up. You can call me Oswald, and I want to help you guys. So please, cooperate with me and the little one, and please, do not get into trouble. If there's any signs of danger, get out of the place. I can't be there for all you. That's all."

With that, the man resumed on his path back inside the building.

Because of that, the news crew pointed their devices to the quiet Ranger.

"And what about you?" Katherine asked.

Lincoln stammered, "Um uh, I- I have to go!"

The boy wasted no time in fleeing the area.

With the fighters out of sight, the camera was back on Katherine.

"Didn't know our little hero was a little shy." She remarked, laughing afterwards. She ceased her laughter soon, and said, "I guess that about wraps up our report for today. This has been Katherine Mulligan, and I will see you next time."

On the woman's signal, the feed was cut off and thus, concludes the news of the day.

* * *

With the news over, the Loud sisters turned off the TV, sighing afterwards.

Leni looked over to Luna.

"Should we look for Lincoln again?" She asked.

"I don't know." Luna said, putting a hand on her face.

"What now?" Asked the ditz again.

"I don't know." Luna said, this time with a more stern tone, which made the others flinch.

Just as everyone was about to lose hope on their brother, the door was pushed open, grabbing their attention. Looking over to it, their eyes widened as they saw who was there as they closed the door.

Except Lisa, of course, who smiled in relief.

" _You did it._ " She thought to herself.

Standing at the door, was Lincoln. He awkwardly glanced around, twiddling his thumbs.

"Uh... Hey?" He casually said.

The others were surprised at his response. The sun was going down, and they were almost about to give up on him. That. Was. All. He. Said.

"Lincoln!" All of them cried out, jumping at him.

In a heartbeat, Lincoln found himself being crushed by his sisters in a big hug. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it definitely took him by surprise. Even though he should have expected it.

Eventually, he was released.

"Heh, missed me much?" Said the boy.

Leni gasped before answering him, "Oh my gosh! You have, like, no idea!"

"You were gone for almost the entire day, Lincoln!" Luan followed up.

"What were you thinking staying outside like that when that was happening!?" Luna said.

Lincoln didn't know how to answer. He knew he would have had to face something like this, but he wasn't sure if he was ready for it. Not at this scale.

Nevertheless, he spoke up for himself, "Well, I'm sorry for making you guys worry like that, I'll try to let you guys know if I'm safe next time I'm not with you guys, alright?"

The others looked at one another. It really didn't sound convincing, but there wasn't much choice for either one of them.

"Okay, but don't stay out for too long! At least not like this!" Luna said.

"I can't promise that." Lincoln said with a smile, which got them all to smile as well. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go take a bath."

No questions were asked as the sisters made way for Lincoln, allowing him to do what he wanted to.

Now upstairs, Lincoln continued on to make his way to his room. Not before stopping in front of the twins' room. He peeked through the door and saw Lana sitting alone.

"Hey, Lana?" Lincoln called, opening the door as he lightly knocked on it.

"Lincoln?" She looked over.

"What's going on? You look sad."

"Nothing, I was just thinking about things."

"Oh, okay. If you need anything, just tell me, okay?"

Lana simply nodded, smiling as she did. Lincoln returned the gesture and walked back out to head into his room.

Once inside, Lincoln sat on his bed and let out a long sigh of exhaustion. He wanted to rest for a bit, but couldn't shake off a feeling of uncertainty.

So what if he can protect the people? If he did so, but keeps coming back bruised or having to see them worried, it really isn't much of an accomplishment.

It's probably best if he sought advice from someone else about this. Wait.

Perking up, Lincoln wondered, "I wonder what Mr. Zed's been doing."

* * *

Somewhere in town, near a badly damaged building that was once the school, a man came out of it pushing a cart filled with numerous items that survived the attack.

He lined it up with a couple more, those other two were filled with the schoolbags of children, as well as several more items.

"Ah, looks like I'm done." Zed claimed, dusting his hands. He briefly glanced over behind him before looking back at the carts.

"Zed." Someone called out, prompting the called one to look to the caller.

"Oswald! You're just in time!" Zed cheerfully said, "Can you help me?"

"No."

"Oh," Zed slightly pouted, before smacking his lips, "Well, what is it, then?"

"The boy."

"Lincoln?" Zed raised an eyebrow.

"That's his name? But anyway, I need to talk to you about him."

"Ah, good kid, ain't he?" Zed smiled, "You can train him, right? Help him adjust?"

"No." Oswald said, confusing Zed.

"What do you mean?"

"He's already well adjusted to it. He was able to bring out his armor while in a panicked state, without proper training. He has a lot of latent abilities, his energy channeling ability is already complete, no sparks, no drawbacks. It's like second nature to him."

"O-Oh?"

"Zed, he adapts. I'm not sure if we can run him through the lessons we tested ourselves with, so I was hoping you could help him."

With that, Oswald turned around and left, leaving Zed behind.

"So, no help?" Zed asked the no longer present man.

With a sigh, Zed moved on, doing whatever he can to reduce his workload and push the carts away. Eventually he found ropes from the gym which he tied the handles with and connected them to another rope which he pulled with.

Before finishing his job, he stopped to take a look at the horizon.

The sun had just touched it, and he watched on as it sank below the ground. It made the man smile.

"Goodnight Royal Woods." He bade the town.

Unknown to even him however, was the lone figure standing atop a building in yet another part of the town. Instead of the setting sun, it watched as nightlife began.

Grinning, it spoke, "Goodnight, Royal Woods."

* * *

Back at the Loud House, Lincoln opened his eyes, not realizing he had fallen into a short sleep. Aka, a nap.

Sitting up with a slight headache, Lincoln tried to get himself back into gear. But as he got a little better, his thoughts from earlier also got refreshed.

Suddenly, he heard a message notification. Pulling out his phone, he looked at it.

The message this time was, " _Hey buddy! I saw the news today. I'm really sorry that you had to see all those bodies. You did good, though. Also, my parents just woke up and apparently, they're going to transfer them to the hospital. That's all from me, hang in there buddy! Lori told me that she was going to send you a message and that I should notify you._ "

As if on cue, another message popped up, " _Hey lil' bro, I'm sorry I haven't been sending out messages today, I had to go through some minor rehab process. They said it's gonna take a while to recover. Looks like the same goes for Mom and Dad. But don't worry, okay? Everything's gonna be alright. Say hi to the others. Love you guys._ "

Just then, his memories from earlier resurfaced. He thought about it for a while, but, maybe he doesn't need to tackle this now.

Shaking his head, he stood up with conviction. With the beliefs from the battle, he decided that it was done. He need not think about it any further.

Besides, his doubts probably just meant that he had to try even harder. And he'll do it.

For the people, for his sisters. He will fight as their anonymous hero.

As the Royal Woods Ranger.

But first...

 **"I still need to take a bath."**

 ** _End of Chapter._**

* * *

 **End Notes: And that was Chapter 7! So...**

 ***What are your thoughts on it? I made sure to improve on everything I didn't do properly during the last run of the story.**


	8. Taking Responsibility

**Author's Notes: Here it is, one of the hardest chapters I've ever had to write so far. At best, this one that I've finally completed is just satisfactory. So, enjoy. If you've got anything to say, just go on.**

* * *

 _Chapter 8\. Taking Responsibility._

Lincoln, and Lisa, as well as Lola, stood in front of the mall, one of the few town landmarks that weren't seriously damaged back during the first attack.

"Got everything you need? Need more extras?" Zed asked from behind them, leaning against his car.

"No, I think we're good here. Thanks, Zed." Lincoln assured with a smile.

"Alright." Nodded the man, getting ready to return to his car, only for Luan to pop out of the mirror on the driver's side.

"Don't forget! Be careful, okay?" Worriedly said the comedian.

"Don't worry, we'll be safe, right Lise?" Lincoln said, glancing over to Lisa, who did the same and nodded.

Luan grunted, not completely assured. Nevertheless, she forced out a smile, and said, "Okay, I believe you guys."

"Guess it's time to part ways then, huh? I'll pick you guys up in about an hour or so." Zed said, opening the door to his car, and waited for Luan to return to her seat before he entered. Once he did, he looked over to Luan and asked, "Ready to head off to the hospital?"

"Ready as I'll ever be!" Luan gave a thumbs up.

With one last nod, the two turned to the trio of kids and waved before the man drove away, with them returning the gesture.

Once the car was out of sight, Lincoln turned to the other two.

"Now, first things first-"

"You need not to tell me what to do, Lincoln. I'm only here to pick up a few things." Lisa said, becoming the first to make her way to the mall.

Lincoln sighed, glanced at Lola, and motioned her to come along as he followed the toddler.

* * *

"Hey 'Lise, wait up!" Lincoln said, with him and Lola closing the distance. "Come on, don't just leave us like that."

"I didn't; you were simply too slow." Lisa said. "On another note, why is Lola with us?"

"I just need some time away from the house; I can't keep myself locked in all the time, you know?"

"I guess that makes sense." Lincoln shrugged.

All of a sudden, Lola gasped and pointed to a certain shop, before running towards it. This forced her companions to give chase.

"Reininger's?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow, "Well, okay, just don't wander around after this, alright?"

"Oh please, as if I'll even be finished by the time you guys are." Lola said before walking into the store.

"Still!" Lincoln replied.

"Come now, Lincoln, I haven't much time to waste standing idly here." Lisa interjected, walking away afterwards.

"Yeah." Lincoln said, following the toddler afterwards.

* * *

"Alright, again, don't go wandering around once you're done, okay?" Lincoln wanted to make sure, having accompanied Lisa to the electronics' store.

"Oh please, as if I would do such things, especially considering our situation here in this town." Lisa said, only to realize something else. "And, Lincoln, please be careful; there has been uncertainty around the town ever since that man's speech a few days back. And I'm afraid that things may spiral out of control."

Nodding, Lincoln responded, "I'll be okay."

Returning the gesture, Lisa walked in without saying anything else and made herself busy.

Meanwhile, Lincoln was left on his own. Realizing this, he sighed before he too, looked around for anything he could distract himself with. Thankfully, he remembered that there was a comics store just one floor above, next to an arcade.

"Maybe luck's turning to my favor this time!" Lincoln excitedly said before running off to the nearest escalator.

* * *

Once he was at the right floor, Lincoln wasted no time running off to the comics store, hoping to get himself a fresh copy of his favorite series.

He was already imagining how it would feel like in his hands. Granted, things have been hard the past few days, and after something like that, even something like a new batch of comic books would be cathartic.

In the midst of his daydreaming session, however, he bumped into someone. Both of them grunted, and fell to their butts.

"Ow…" Lincoln rubbed his head.

"Ugh…"

Upon hearing the other person's voice, Lincoln thought to himself, " _Wait, that voice._ "

He then looked up, seeing no other than his friend.

"Clyde!"

Said person perked up after hearing Lincoln's voice and looked to him.

"Lincoln?"

"What are you doing here?" Lincoln said as he got up, walking over to Clyde and holding out his hand afterwards.

Clyde accepted Lincoln's help, getting back to his feet as he answered while picking up some bags, "I was just finishing up on buying some groceries. What about you?"

Lincoln briefly glanced at his friend's bags and nodded, "Ah, well, I'm just here because Lisa wanted me to tag along while she looks for anything she could rip apart and use to fix her stuff with."

"I see." Clyde nodded.

The two boys then looked to the nearby store, and back at each other, with looks of excitement. Without further ado, they ran in.

Inside, the boys browsed the shelves.

"So, Lincoln." Clyde began.

"Yeah?"

"How's it been?" Asked the geeky boy.

"Well, it's been good. Nothing's happened so far."

"Good."

"How are your parents?"

Clyde stopped his search for a book, looking down with a sigh afterwards.

"O-oh… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked that-"

"No, it's okay. I mean, I'm not the only one who has it bad, you know?"

"Yeah, but still… I could have done something about that. I had my options laid out already, but I hesitated. If only I-"

Lincoln was interrupted when he felt Clyde's hand on his shoulder. He looked to his friend, and saw him looking back with a stern expression.

With sterner voice, Clyde spoke, "It's not your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. You were scared, and I understand. I would be, too. But beating yourself up about it isn't going to change anything. As much as it hurts me to say this, I don't think you could have done much even if you had put on the belt earlier."

Lincoln bit his lower lip, trying to hold himself together.

"But hey," Clyde continued, prompting the Loud boy to look at him, "At least you managed to save the town a couple days back. That's good enough for me. It should be for anyone. Besides, it's not like everyone was oblivious enough to believe there weren't going to be more casualties."

"I- I guess." Lincoln quietly muttered.

Lincoln gave another sigh, before things quieted down between the two.

However, the silence was broken pretty quickly when they heard a commotion from outside. They wondered about it for a bit, before they decided to go and check it out themselves.

Outside, they realized that they weren't the only ones curious. Not only that, but they also found that whatever was going on, it happened just outside the arcade.

"What's going on?" Clyde wondered out loud as he and Lincoln tried to shoulder their way between the large crowd to get a better view.

They got there soon enough, and saw two kids duking it out violently.

Thankfully, the mall cops were quick enough to show up.

"Alright, alright, break it off you guys!" The captain shouted.

Bobby was the one accompanying him, helping out in pushing back the crowd from poking their noses in too deep.

"Nothing to see here!" Said the teen.

"Hey Bobby." Lincoln greeted out of the blue.

The teen looked over to Lincoln, and smiled, "Oh, hey, little Loud! What's up?"

"Nothing much."

"Say, how's Lori doing? Is she okay? I haven't gotten the chance to ask her myself because I've been too busy with work- please tell her I'm sorry!"

"Calm down, she's fine. And I think she'll understand." Lincoln said with his hands raised slightly in an attempt to calm Bobby down.

"In that case, I should stop worrying then. Maybe I'll talk to her myself when I get the chance! But you fellas' got to go now, it's dangerous here." Bobby said, pointing to the captain trying to break off the two.

"Alright." Lincoln nodded, preparing to leave the place with Clyde. But before they did, Lincoln caught a glimpse of the two kids, and it was weird; it looked as if they were snapped out. Of what was the question that came into Lincoln's head next.

"Oh, by the way, Ronnie Anne's here, why don't you go and meet her? I don't know where she is, though." Bobby informed.

"Okay."

With that, both Lincoln and Clyde walked away from the scene, with the former left thinking about what he saw.

* * *

Lisa walked out of the store with a disappointed look.

"Okay, minor setback; nothing useful was found during my search. But it doesn't matter, a scientist's job is to make easier the lives of people!"

Suddenly, her mood dimmed out again, prompting her to sigh. She then looked around to try and locate Lincoln, but found something else that caught her eye. Or rather, someone.

Face concealed under a hoodie, a stranger walked around casually while occasionally eyeing their surroundings.

"What doofus dresses in such a conspicuous manner?" Lisa commented quietly. But she found it funny, and lightly chuckled at the sight of the stranger and the cartoony style of remaining anonymous.

She noticed that the stranger's been eyeing a certain spot up ahead, and did so as well, spotting a large crowd.

"Could it be?" She said, before looking at the stranger and thinking of the possibility that there may be some connection. "Perhaps I should direct my focus somewhere else. Apologies, Lincoln, but curiosity got the best of me."

* * *

Lincoln and Clyde were already out of the store, and had a new destination in mind.

In their hands were a clasp envelope.

"Oh man, I can't believe we got the latest issues of the Ace Savvy comics!" Clyde said.

"Yeah, I thought we'd miss them for sure!" Lincoln agreed.

Clyde's smile wore out afterwards as he remembered about their destination, "But still, do you think it'll be okay if we left the area and look for Ronnie Anne?"

"It'll be okay; besides, we'll just say hi, and then we go!" Lincoln assured.

It didn't take much longer, as Lincoln spotted her from above, watching something it would seem.

"There she is." Lincoln pointed.

"What is she looking at?" Clyde asked.

"I don't know, let's check!"

* * *

"Hey, Ronnie Anne!"

The tomboy perked up after hearing someone call her out, and looked behind her to see Lincoln and Clyde approaching her.

"Oh, hey guys. What are you doing here?" She asked.

"We could ask the same." Clyde responded.

"See that?" Ronnie Anne pointed at a nearby store, a gun store, where yet another group of people have gathered around.

"Whoa, what's going on here?" Clyde asked.

"A maniac just came in there earlier, somehow took everyone inside hostage, and were shouting for people to "raise arms and fight back!" Ronnie Anne explained simply, giving a hint of mockery on the perpetrators' words. "The police had been trying to bust in, but so far, nothing."

The boys looked to one another, before directing their attention on the crowded gun store, held back by a police line and several officers.

Near the door were a couple of officers, leaned closely, but not close enough. Lincoln could just make out the area, though, and found that the doorway was damaged, riddled by what he believes to be bullet holes.

" _What's causing all this?_ " Lincoln thought to himself.

" _Perhaps they are unable to cope around the attacks, and without much to be able to rely on, they do not have any sense of security._ "

"What?" Lincoln jerked slightly, looking around afterwards.

"What was that?" Clyde looked to his friend.

But before Lincoln could answer, Ronnie Anne saw someone coming, "Hey look!"

A round of gasps followed, and from one side of the crowd, emerged Oswald. He made his way near the store.

The man eyed the place, inspecting the doorway through touches. He was then seen conversing briefly with the police, before the two officers near the entrance moved away.

Oswald looked around, briefly glancing over to Lincoln, before he walked in.

* * *

Inside, things really weren't all that pretty. There were shattered glasses from what used to be the door, people laid on the floor in fear, and in the middle of it all, was a man with a crazed look in his eyes. He also had a shotgun in his hands.

Taking a deep breath, Oswald spoke, "Alright, calm down. Let's not do anything stupid, okay?"

Hearing and seeing no response from the man, Oswald took a step forward, which was reacted to with the man taking aim at him.

"Please, just drop the gun. There's no need to hurt anyone. It really isn't necessary."

"No! No, you stay away from me! You're no different, you're the same as those things!"

Oswald flinched upon hearing the man's words, and for a very brief moment, his expression shifted to one that showed rage. He quickly recovered.

"Please, I won't say it again after this. Drop. The. Gun."

Oswald took another step, but this time, the man pulled the trigger, sending a dozen buckshot pellets towards him.

Sighing, Oswald reached out, catching each one of the pellets as if he was playing a game of jacks. All in a quick, blurry motion.

At first it wasn't clear as to what just happened. But then Oswald spread his arm out, and dropped the pellets, some were slightly crushed.

The man fell silent.

Oswald took a step forward.

The man took aim again, but had his gun pushed upwards.

Oswald slammed the gun on the man's face, breaking his grip on it, before delivering a swift chop on the side of the man's neck, knocking him out.

The situation was defused.

* * *

Oswald walked out with the man carried over his shoulder, followed by a round of cheers from the crowd. He made way for the officers to come in and deal with the rest, before he gave the man over to one officer.

He raised a hand, silencing the people.

"How many of you agreed?" Oswald asked.

Nobody answered.

"How many of you thought it would be a good idea to fight back?" He repeated.

A good number of them raised their hands.

"Even if it meant getting in my way?" Oswald raised an eyebrow.

He shook his head, walking away from the place soon after, briefly glancing over to Lincoln as he did.

"Whoa." Ronnie Anne commented.

"Hang on, Clyde, can you hold this?" Lincoln said, handing his friend the envelope, which was reluctantly taken. He quickly made his way to the direction Oswald disappeared to.

"What's with him?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Nothing, he's just checking out his sisters, I guess."

"Ah."

"Actually, I've something I wanna ask. What do you think of Oswald? And you seem to like him. Even back at the bunker."

"Well, he's just cool. What else is there to say?"

"But you seem to adore him. Why's that?" Clyde persisted.

Ronnie Anne began stumbling with her words, looking away as she looked for the right words to say.

* * *

Lisa was hidden behind an arcade cabinet, watching as the stranger was dismantling a panel from one. She saw him pull out something out of his jacket.

"What are you doing?" She quietly said.

Suddenly, the stranger perked up and looked around him. Almost instantaneously, he was looking almost directly towards her.

With a faint, "Eep!", Lisa retreated behind the cover of the cabinet. "Great, now you have- as they would say it- blew it."

"Who's there?" The stranger asked with a surprisingly soft voice for a guy.

Lisa needed only to look up to see the stranger frozen as their eyes met.

The stranger stuttered, pulling back his hoodie before asking, "What's a toddler doing by herself?"

Putting up a front, Lisa retorted, "I'll have you know, not all toddlers are helpless on their own, you know?"

"Fluent in speech, too."

"What of it?"

Holding out his hand, the stranger smiled, "Name's Julius."

Lisa reluctantly shook the stranger's hand, "Lisa."

Julius let go of the toddler's hand, and nodded, his smile remaining.

"So…" Lisa began-

-Only to be interrupted by a tremor that was quick to cause panic among the people, and breaking their balances. Julius and Lisa managed to counter it with the former by widening his stance and the latter by the doing the same coupled by her already lower center of mass.

"Already?" Julius said quietly.

Lisa looked at Julius confusedly.

Another one, actually managed to make the two drop their knees.

"We gotta get out!" Julius said.

"Obviously!"

* * *

A few minutes prior…

Lincoln took one last turn, and saw Oswald leaning against a wall.

"Hey." Greeted the boy.

Oswald looked at him, and pushed himself off, "Sorry you had to see that."

"It's okay-"

"It's really not. At this point, what you do can be influential. And you're gonna have to take responsibility for what comes next."

Lincoln stared wide-eyed, before shaking himself out of it, "O-oh, I never thought of it that way."

"It's a big responsibility we carry, kid. Speaking of which… how are your family?"

"Uhh- Oh! Well, they're fine. In fact, I came here today with…"

"...Oh jeez."

Then the tremor happened.

* * *

In yet another section of the mall, a minute prior to the quake.

Lola walked out of Reininger's sporting a look of satisfaction.

"Looks like I will be coming in more fabulous than ever in the next pageant." Lola said to herself, laughing at the thought of it afterwards.

Unfortunately, it didn't last long as the inevitable tremor shook her area as well. In fact, it was much worse on her side, as the rubble came down around the area, blocking the exit, and making escaping on the other end near impossible. The blockades and the destroyed lights left the place darkened.

* * *

Back with Lincoln…

"What was that!?"

"Go! Something's here already! I need you to find someone; I got hold of an acquaintance of mine, he should be around here!"

"There's another one!?"

"No time to explain, go!" Oswald shouted, running off soon after.

"Oh jeez, oh no!" Lincoln said as he too high-tailed it out of the place and in search for his sisters.

He eventually arrived at the electronics' store, having pushed through waves of people frantically making their way to the opposite direction. He found, however, that Lisa was no longer there.

He immediately knew what this meant. He cursed himself for even allowing himself to think about leaving them behind. The lights flickered, and his attention shifted, from it, to the large blockade on the other end.

With a panicked mind, Lincoln decided to leave the area for later, and made his way back where he came from.

* * *

After running for a bit more, Lincoln bumped into his friends.

"Clyde!"

"Lincoln! Where were you, we looked everywhere after you ran off!" Clyde asked.

"I'm sorry, but I need your help to find my sisters!" Lincoln pleaded.

Clyde didn't argue, and instead nodded.

"Come on!" Lincoln motioned for the two to follow him, only to be stopped when he bumped into someone.

"Oof."

"Ow! Not again!" Lincoln grunted, quickly pushing himself back to his feet.

"Lincoln?"

The boy was still trying to recover from the bump, and recovered immediately when he recognized the voice. Looking over to his caller, he gasped.

"Lisa!" He said, jumping over to hug his sister.

"Excuse me, but we've gotta get out of here!"

Lincoln looked to his side to see the stranger he bumped into.

"Who are you?" Lincoln asked.

"Julius, but that doesn't matter right now. I need to find someone, but you guys have to get out first!" Julius quickly briefed Lincoln on things.

"I need to find someone, too!" Lincoln said.

…

"Do any of you know Oswald?" Julius asked.

"We all do." Lincoln answered. "Why?"

"I'm looking for him." Julius said.

Lisa went wide-eyed, looking over to both Lincoln and Julius, finally realizing what was going on.

"Wait- it's you!" Lincoln pointed.

"You're the one Oswald told me about!" Julius said, doing the same.

"Wait, wait, what's going on?" Ronnie Anne interloped between the two.

"Well, uh…"

"Nothing!" Lincoln said.

Julius pulled out something from his jacket's front pocket and crouched next to Lisa. He began activating the tablet-like device, typing on it.

"Look, this thing's hacking into the mall's mainframe, and in a moment, you should be able to get hold of the available cameras, okay?" Julius said, handing the device over. "Let's go!" He said to Lincoln.

"Wait, we're coming with you!" Ronnie Anne said.

"No, you don't have to! It's going to be dangerous!" Lincoln tried to hold her off.

"I don't care! You're going out there, too!" The tomboy insisted.

"No. You, stay back with the others. You're going to hold us back." Julius said coldly, much to the others' surprise.

Taken aback, Ronnie Anne was, for a lack of better word, offended by the stranger's words.

"Listen here you-"

"Ronnie Anne, please! We don't' have time to argue!" Lincoln shouted, silencing the girl.

"It's okay, Ronnie Anne, we should trust them." Clyde said, pulling the girl by the arm. "We'll see you later, Lincoln!"

"Alright!" Lincoln said, running off with Julius.

Lisa, meanwhile, had only been watching the whole thing. Luckily, her attention was grabbed when the device in her hands beeped.

"It's done!"

"Great, now let's go!" Clyde said.

"Who does that guy think he is!? Lame-O, too, siding with a stranger!? What is he thinking!?" Ronnie Anne vented.

Clyde sighed.

* * *

"So, how long?" Julius began.

"What?"

"How long have you been at this?" Julius cleared his question up.

"Well, as of today, it's gonna be my third fight, and my fifth day as one of you guys, I guess." Lincoln answered.

"How'd you get in?"

"Well… I had to save my family… Zed explained to me what I had to do. I was scared, yes, but still, if I had decided earlier, I could have done better. Nobody I know died, of course. Again, still."

Julius quietly looked at the boy as they both continued to run in search for Oswald. He then returned focus forward, and shook his head, muttering something quietly.

Not long after, they found the man.

They found him, bloodied and battered, and on one knee. In front of him, was a Hexon. Or at least, it looked a bit like one. Lincoln did not recognize this one; it had an armor, similar to the speed demon, but had the overall build of a Hexon.

"Oswald!" Julius called, getting the man's attention. As well as the creature's.

Julius took out a rectangular device, built like a knuckleduster, and began pressing on some buttons. If Lincoln had to guess, he was inputting a code of sorts. Then, the device was raised into the air.

From the item, a ring was shot out, bearing patterns similar to those on circuit boards. It quickly scanned him, covering him in a thin layer of armor, before sliding the item into a slot on his chest which caused the ring to scan again, completing the transformation.

Lincoln noticed that Julius's armor was different, it made him look more like a robot, akin to the ones in the movies he once watched.

"Whoa." Lincoln said.

Julius looked at Lincoln, which made him realize that he too, needed to act.

Putting his hands over his waist, Lincoln's belt materialized, with which he immediately initiated the transformation process. It was done in a quick flash of light.

The two youngsters looked at one another, and nodded, before joining the fight, breaking the Hexon away from Oswald with a combined punch.

While Julius continued on, Lincoln tended to Oswald.

"I found him. Are you okay?" Asked the boy.

"What took you so long?" Oswald responded.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you would need our help." Lincoln sarcastically answered, to which Oswald jokingly scoffed on.

"Didn't know you had some edge on ya." Oswald said before getting back up. "Let's go."

Oswald transformed, and the two joined in with Julius in pushing back the creature.

* * *

Outside, by at least a few dozen meters, Clyde watched on. He looked back to the other two, Ronnie Anne, who watched with him, and Lisa, who was focused on the device.

Clyde noticed that Ronnie Anne was still angry about earlier, which he noted from her bitter expression. Deciding to not disturb her, Clyde walked over to Lisa.

"Anything yet?" Clyde asked.

"Nothing on the cameras, but I have picked up numerous energy readings. They're all powerful ones." Lisa answered.

Clyde looked on as well, and saw what Lisa was looking at. Separated by four segments, one showed the camera, one where a bar was rising and dropping, another one was a sort of rough map on the mall, with a lone blip in the middle.

"What do you think that is?" Clyde pointed at the blip.

"I'd assume that's Julius, as it didn't appear until just now."

The young scientist kept on scrolling through, trying to find a more visual confirmation on the fighters' statuses. Thankfully, they just happened to jump on one. At least a couple floors above ground.

It shows Oswald kicking the Hexon back by several meters, followed with a short series of attacks from Lincoln, who punched wherever he could. Then, an armored one who delivered all the heavy strikes.

"Whoa, is that him!?" Clyde exclaimed, only to find that some people were giving them weird looks. He waited until their suspicions were dropped, before he spoke, "Wow, I never expected he'd have an armor like that."

"I can't believe it. A functioning, human-made battle armor on par with the strength of a Hexon?"

The trio quickly took the battle off-screen, forcing Lisa to jump to another camera, stopping only for a brief moment when they catch them on-screen, before having to jump again.

"Wait, you guys still had someone else inside, right?" Clyde asked.

"That's right, we had yet to locate Lola when the creature made its entrance." Lisa confirmed, leaving the battle to find any sort of clues she could that would lead them to Lola. "Still, how did the Hexon appear?"

"I don't think that matters right now, what does matter, is that we find Lola!" Clyde said, trying to keep Lisa focused.

* * *

Julius tackled the Hexon, knocking it backwards, followed by Oswald who knocked it further with a kick.

Lincoln delivered the last of the series by jumping on top of Julius' still hunched back, who launched him forward in an arc by springing back up. The boy prepared for a diving punch, successfully landing the attack square on the creature's chest.

Even after the creature staggered backwards, and nearly tripping on a decently sized crack, Lincoln never let his guard down. The same however, could not be said for Julius, who regrouped with the boy alongside Oswald.

"Hah, see what happens when there's three of us? That's right, you don't stand a chance!" Julius taunted. "Man, look at this guy, he's a chump change!"

Oswald looked over to Julius, "We've been fighting for five minutes, I don't think that thing can be considered a chump change. Besides, I don't think it's gone fully serious, yet."

"Then all we gotta do is end this quickly, right?" Julius shrugged, running off towards the creature afterward.

"Julius, no!" Oswald cried out.

The creature quickly recovered, revealing its dazed state to be a feign, and stepped down on the young man's foot into the crack, nearly breaking his balance.

Still, Julius was taken aback, and he looked down on his locked foot, before trying to get it out. But at that moment, it was too late for him. The creature wrapped its arms around him, and body slammed him into the floor, sending both of them down, all the way to the ground floor.

"That idiot!" Oswald growled, seemingly more concerned about letting the enemy pull one over him rather than him being hurt. He then jumped in.

"Wait!" Lincoln said, following the man soon after.

Lincoln felt a light impact, which felt odd to him even though he was well aware that he had just jumped down from a height of around 20 feet or so. He looked around and almost immediately found Oswald.

"Oswald!" He called, running over to the man's side.

"Keep your guard up." Oswald warned.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Lincoln nodded, looking around. "It's weird, why would the Hexon hide in broad daylight?"

"Lincoln?" Oswald called.

"Yeah?" Lincoln looked.

Pointing somewhere, Oswald spoke up, "We're actually in the dark."

"What!?" Lincoln looked to where Oswald was pointing, gasping at the sight of a massive wall blocking one side of the building. "It only looked a little dim in my eyes!"

"You'll get used to it." Oswald said. "Now, let's try finding-"

Something then sped forward from the other end of the blockade, smashing into a nearby store, followed soon by rounds of terrified screams.

"That sounded like it came from…" Lincoln slowly turned to the source of the sound.

Lincoln gasped again.

* * *

"Reininger's!" Lisa exclaimed.

She and Clyde have found where the last of the remaining civilians are in the building. It just so happened that there were numerous, trapped, and among them, Lola Loud.

"Oh no, we have to tell Lincoln!"

Lisa then frantically darted her eyes around the device, "Surely Julius would have implemented something that would allow communication."

* * *

Lincoln and Oswald ran into the clothing store, stopping almost immediately when they found, inside the dimly lit room thanks to emergency lights, a small group of people huddled up together while a down Julius laid on his back with the Hexon looking down on him.

Oswald flinched at the sight, but Lincoln reacted much more strongly; he gasped and his breath became shaky as he tried to get a good view on the interiors. He couldn't get anything from where he was, so he ran in, much to Oswald's chagrin as the Hexon became notified of their presence.

Oswald joined with Lincoln, who looked around among the crowd. The man knew something was wrong when he saw Lincoln's posture slump.

"Is it your sister…?" Oswald assumed.

"Y-yes… right here, in this room. With that thing…" Lincoln answered shakily.

Somewhere in the crowd, Lola watched on in terror as the Hexon kept its eyes on the two fighters.

"Lincoln… I don't mean to terrify you… but you kinda put us in more of a pinch than before." Oswald informed.

"W-what?" Lincoln turned to the senior.

Oswald simply motioned his head to where they came from, and the place where the civilians were gathered.

It hit Lincoln almost immediately, like a speeding truck carrying tons and tons of bricks. The Hexon now knows that they're there, and entrance was blocked. The reason why nobody has escaped yet, was because of yet another blockade, from outside. That explained why it was barely lit up even with the emergency lights.

"What do we do?" Lincoln asked.

"We either take that thing head on, or try to save them first."

Oswald looked around, and was beginning to form a plan in his head. He could take a different route, engage the creature from-

The Hexon's 'eyes' flashed red. This got Oswald's attention, and shocked him when the creature's head followed the path Oswald had his eyes on. It knows.

Lincoln looked around, his heartbeat intensifying with each second they weren't doing anything. Seeing the Hexon simply staring at them reminded him of his first encounter with one. He didn't like it, it scares him.

Then he remembered. Lola was once trapped like this before. Now, it's happened again.

He had to do something…

That's it. He has to.

Without hesitation, Lincoln leaped forward, and wrapped his arms around the creature.

"Lin- Kid, no!" Oswald cried out.

Out of reflex, Oswald also jumped forward, only to be countered easily when he was slammed using the young fighter.

The attack staggered Oswald, and the Hexon made sure to use it now that Lincoln no longer was in hold of it.

Charging its leg to the point where it glowed red, the Hexon thrust its leg forward, delivering a powerful kick, enough to break through the wall of the store and send the man outside.

Unfortunately, the hole was made too high, and not the right size for anyone to fit through.

Julius finally came around at this point, and he heard a growl from outside. He knew what he planned to do, but saw what the Hexon was preparing to counter him with.

"Oswald wait!" He screamed out, rolling away from where he laid. "If you get closer, this thing's going to throw him at you! Even if it means hitting the civilians!"

Suddenly, it went quiet outside.

Lincoln, who was in the Hexon's hand, looked down in frustration.

" _How did it come to this?_ " He thought to himself.

" _What is it that you wanted to protect?_ "

" _What?_ "

" _If you wanted to protect everyone so badly, why put them in danger?_ "

"I- I didn't mean to…" Lincoln accidentally said out loud, getting Julius' attention. "I just wanted to make an opening. I thought… I could use myself as diversion…"

"What? That sounds stupid." Julius remarked on Lincoln's words. "Why would you do that?"

"I wanted to protect everyone okay!? And I didn't want to see them getting hurt like before."

…

Nobody realized, but outside, Oswald quietly leaned himself against the rubble that was blocking the civilians' way out. He didn't know that Lincoln was serious when he said what he did.

* * *

Lisa and Clyde watched on, horrified at the sight of a weakened Lincoln in the Hexon's hand.

They then saw Julius slowly move his wrist close to his face.

" _Can you hear me?_ " He spoke through. " _There's one way you can speak to him. The loudspeakers. Find the mic button, he's gonna need the emotional support._ "

Lisa immediately searched for said button, and found it soon enough, having familiarized herself with the interface of the device. She pressed on it.

"Can you hear me?" She spoke, with the reactions of those in the store letting her know that she went through.

" _Loud and clear._ " Julius further confirmed.

" _Listen… Royal Woods Ranger?_ " Lisa continued, " _I- uh…_ "

" _Don't give up, okay?_ " Clyde took over, " _I know you're doubting yourself right now, but I want you to know, that you're doing your job nicely. It's not perfect, no doubt, but at least you haven't gotten anyone hurt yet, right?_ "

They both saw Lincoln looking with a slightly hung head towards them. They got his attention.

" _Besides, it doesn't matter if you couldn't do well before, as long as you continue on, you'll get better! As a good comic I once read told me, "with great power, comes even greater responsibilities!_ "

* * *

Lincoln was taken aback by his friend's words. But he found it funny that he decided to risk sounding cheesy and use a quote from a comic. Still…

"Responsibilities…" He muttered quietly to himself.

They then heard a slam from outside, directing attention towards it.

"Listen, Lin- kid! It's like I said before, just because you want to save people because you think it's the right thing to do, or that because you have to, doesn't mean that's how it should always be. Besides, putting your life on the line to do that isn't right! Imagine this, if we're gone, who will protect everyone?"

Lincoln gasped in realization. It would seem that he's faltering again…

"This is a responsibility, not a mere errand! It's a task, not an obstacle that needs simply to be overcome." Oswald continued. "And you, you have a task, don't you?"

"I-I…" Lincoln stuttered.

"Never thought of it that way?" Oswald finished.

Lincoln slowly looked to the small group of people, focusing more on Lola. It's true, he can't just get it over with. It's something… he needs to do.

But, during all of this, the Hexon had been squirming in place and it peaked when the creature threw Lincoln to the ground.

The creature reeled its arm back, charging it with energy.

"No!" Julius held a hand out, and ran towards the creature.

Meanwhile, Lincoln's vision had slowed down, and he found himself thinking again.

" _What can I do now?_ "

" _What do you think you need to do?_ "

"I need… I will. That's it. I need, and I **will** protect everyone!" Lincoln proclaimed, jumping back to his feet and raised his arms in an attempt to stop the creature's attack.

An orange glow formed around Lincoln's hands, which multiplied until finally, it formed around him. He was encased in a barrier. A dome.

The punch connected, and the energy exploded away from the point of contact. It continued until it ran out, surprising the Hexon by a noticeable amount.

The wall was then broken in one powerful strike from outside, revealing Oswald, now holding a rod similar to the one he made before.

"Make your way out of here!" Oswald told the civilians, who didn't hesitate even a little bit.

All except for Lola, who looked back for a moment, at the three heroes who saved her, before continuing on in her way.

It didn't at all take long before the battle was taken outside, and into the parking lot, expanding the battlefield.

The Hexon, having been thrown out with a powerful combination attack from its three opponents, skidded across the ground and came to a stop dozens of meters away from the mall where it tried to recover.

Lincoln, Oswald, and Julius stood side by side, overlooking the Hexon.

"It's time we end this." Lincoln said, with both of his allies nodding in agreement.

Lincoln balled up his fist, reeling it back with a growl, lighting it up with a bright orange energy.

Julius inputted another code into his bracers, where a lever materialized, which he pulled on thrice, causing his forearm to buzz with a pinkish-red energy.

Oswald simply raised his weapon at an angle, yelling out as a green energy burst through it.

"Let's go!" They all shouted.

Unleashing a primal roar, the trio ran forward to their enemy. The creature was still dazed, the gap between them closing, the battle was decided.

With a hard strike on the gut, shoulder, and the face, the Hexon was overflowing with energy, so much so, that it began projecting from its 'face', intensifying to the point where it was completely engulfed in light. The end result was an explosion that tore through the parking lot, spanning a couple dozen meters in diameter, and with black skywards reaching smoke.

The dust cloud that was kicked up quickly cleared up, revealing the three of them, still in their execution stance while remaining completely silent.

It was only the thunderous cheers from the onlookers on the other side of the mall that finally snapped them out of it, and prompting them to look over to the crowd.

"You see that Lincoln? These are the people that will come under our protection. And I hope you understand that well now." Oswald pointed to them.

"Yeah… I think I do." Lincoln said.

"Welp, that's enough basking glory." Julius said, stretching himself from all the strain caused on his body.

"Agreed, why don't you two go on and find a hiding spot?" Oswald suggested.

"Alright." Lincoln nodded.

"Come on, then." Julius motioned for the boy to come with him as he ran back into the store.

* * *

Not long after the battle was won, a car pulled up near Lisa, the now regrouped Lola, Clyde, and Ronnie Anne, which surprised all four of them.

From the car, Zed came out, sporting a look of concern on his face. He was followed by Luan, and Lucy…

"Lucy?" Lisa was the first to take note of the Goth's presence.

"It's a long story." Zed said, before looking around. "Where's Lincoln?"

"He's not here yet… he's probably with that jerk Julius." Ronnie Anne huffed, crossing her arms.

Zed's eyes widened for a brief moment, but he nodded still. He then looked to the others.

"Wait, look!" Luan pointed to the entrance.

From there, Lincoln, Julius and Oswald walked out of it, much to the surprise of everyone minus Lisa, Zed, and Clyde.

The three soon arrived at the rendezvous point, and were greeted by the others.

"Well, looked like it was a long day, huh?" Zed remarked on Oswald's bruises.

"You have no idea…" Oswald said before walking away.

"So hey, Julius, glad you're finally here." Zed looked to the young man.

"Now, why don't we all head home?" Julius ignored Zed.

"Sounds good." Lincoln said, only to notice Lucy. He pointed at her, but the answer came quickly.

"Long story." Lisa said.

Lincoln then nodded.

"Nie Nie!"

"Huh?" Ronnie Anne turned around, only to be caught in a hug by Bobby, much to her embarrassment.

"Where have you been!? I was so worried, I looked everywhere for you!" Said the teen.

"I've been here this whole time!" Ronnie Anne answered.

Bobby then let go, before sighing in relief.

"At least you're okay." He said, before smiling.

Ronnie Anne looked at her brother, and realized that maybe she was wrong to not meet up with him while she had the chance. "Guess I owe you an apology, huh?"

"Anyway, looks like it's time we part." Zed said.

"Wait," Lincoln said, turning to Julius, "Where will you go?"

"I'll be living with Oswald for the time being." Julius explained.

As if on cue, Oswald came in with his bike.

"Speak of the devil. See you guys later, 'aight?" Julius waved them goodbye before joining with Oswald.

"Well, looks like you Louds have to go as well." Zed looked to the members of said family. "You too, Clyde, I'll give you a ride."

"No, it's okay, I don't wanna make it too cramped in there."

"I wouldn't mind." Luan shrugged. "Besides, it'll be like before Lincoln was around!"

The others laughed at the thought of that.

"Well, I guess you're right. But how will the seats be distributed?" Clyde asked.

"Leave that to me." Zed said, motioning them to follow him to his car.

While Zed was arranging and designating seats, a lone figure approached the damaged building.

The figure looked around, before going to the side, where the Hexon was defeated, signified by the large crater around the area.

The figure smiled, and spoke to himself…

" **Interesting…"**

 _End of Chapter._

* * *

 **End Notes:**

 **Trivia:**

 ***The document for this chapter is named "The Bane of My Existence".**

 ***This final version of the chapter is somewhere around the 15th or so rewrite of it, with efforts spanning all the way from last year. The problem? I couldn't find the right scenario to put Lincoln through before his mini-awakening.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes: This does not mean I'm coming back; just updating with what I've already completed.**

* * *

 _Chapter 9. One's worth in battle_

"Hiyaargh!"

Lincoln yelled out as he threw a punch towards Zed, who easily dodged the attack. The boy followed with another one, same result. This would go on for a few more times.

"Come on, stop trying to hit me and hit me!" Zed tried to motivate the boy.

"I'm-" Lincoln grunted as he threw a fruitless punch, "-Trying!"

Zed then came to a stop, which Lincoln tried to take advantage of by throwing a straight punch aimed at the man's chest.

However, Zed deflected it by simply raising elbow in the direction of the punch, before throwing one of his own, aimed at the boy's face.

Lincoln froze up and braced himself to take the attack, whimpering despite his bravado.

He reopened his eyes when he found out that nothing happened. Not only that, but he found that Zed had already relaxed himself and was staring at him.

"Wha-?"

"You gotta loosen up, Mr. President." Zed said as he pointed at the boy, which he raised an eyebrow on.

"Whu- wait, loosen up?"

"Relax."

"I can't relax! Not during battles! I realized that yesterday; I need to always be aware of my surroundings-" Lincoln protested.

"No no, what I meant was: you're too stiff. When you're like that, you're brittle. Which means you're gonna botch some of your movements. You gotta be more tactical. That's where relaxing comes in; when you're calmer, you should be able to evaluate your decisions better. Capische?" Zed explained, smiling afterwards.

"Ah- Huh…" Lincoln stared wide-eyed.

Zed nodded, before pulling up his sleeve to check on his watch, "Huh, you think we should check up on Julius and Lisa?"

Lincoln's eyes snapped back to Zed, "Oh, yeah. They should still be somewhere around the park."

Lincoln briefly looked around before looking at Zed, who nodded and walked off, with him following shortly after.

* * *

"So, Hexons huh?" Julius looked over Lisa's notes which were laid on the table between them, most of them only through observations.

"That is what the local police department designated them as, yes." Lisa said, looking through Julius' notebook, showcasing numerous armor designs. "Though, it is quite interesting what you've achieved. Your armor is not only functional, but it also possessed enough power to match the strength of Hexons without trading off speed nor mobility."

"It took a while, but yes, I have come far." Julius put down Lisa's notes and crossed his arms.

"Tell me, how long have you been doing this? What was it like when you made your first armor? What power source do you use? How did you manage to create a material strong enough to be molded into your armors while keeping its density at a fair rate but still enough to withstand all those pressure?" Lisa continued.

Julius took a deep breath before readjusting his sitting position, "Well, I started working when I was around 10, and I finished my first one some year and a half later. It was glorious, I was able to harness power equal to that of an atomic bomb."

"10? Atomic bomb?" Lisa raised an eyebrow.

"It was a troublesome time when I first began, and we needed something that could dispatch the Hexons easily. Of course, I couldn't do it without the others' research. They told me I couldn't, but here I am." Julius smiled proudly.

"Interesting… proceed."

"As for power source… while I'm still searching for more powerful ones, so far, I've been using a rather dangerous power source. Let's say it's a sort of thermonuclear fusion, with an amplification factor of about ten thousand or so. I've been using a stabilizer, and it will need renewal everytime I'm done with it, so it's really not safe."

Once Julius was finished, he found that Lisa was scribbling away on her notes.

"This is amazing! I had no idea that it was possible to do such thing!" Lisa marveled at the revelation.

"And as for the materials? Well, it's actually Oswald who's responsible for that." Julius said, chuckling a little.

Lisa stopped writing, and slowly looked back up to Julius.

"Come again?"

"It's Oswald who helps me with the materials. You know how he can make things out of his surroundings, right?"

"Transmutation, yes. So wait, that's how you managed to refine your materials to a desirable state?"

"Indeed."

"Well, at least he's useful for something."

"Excuse me?"

"I'll be honest, Julius, I never really liked Oswald." Lisa explained, which Julius was interested in. "Whenever he's on the scene, there's always a hint of uncertainty. Sure, that might have changed a little what with him inadvertently making the exit for the trapped civilians yesterday, but there's a sense of dread that never leaves me when I know he's there with Lincoln."

"Ah, come on, now. He's not that bad. At least, he's not like someone I know." Julius said, his expression turning bitter.

Suddenly, silence befell the two. For Lisa, it was because Julius had just taken an unexpected turn. It never occurred to her that Julius might have someone in his bad side. Perhaps the only reason she knew of that is because of how much more open he is compared to Oswald. Or Zed.

"Hey, Lisa!"

The toddler and the young man looked over to their caller. Expecting someone, they got another.

"Lynn?" Lisa muttered, looking at her sister, who was dressed in her school team's clothing.

"What are you doing here?" Asked the jock, carrying a baseball bat with a pitched glove at the batting end. She then looked at Julius, "Who are you?"

"Name's Julius," The young man held a hand out, which Lynn thoughtlessly shook, "Nice to meet you."

"So, how long have you two been here? Or known each other?" Lynn glanced over to both of them.

"We met yesterday, and I must say Lynn; I have never been more glad to know that there's someone in this very town, who shares my view on things."

"So, you're both nerds, then?" Lynn laughed.

"Seems you're off to play baseball, mind if I join?" Julius said.

"Hah, you think you've got what it takes to defeat the 'Lynn-er'?" Said the jock in an almost mocking tone.

"Please don't compete with her."

The three then looked over to see someone in a similar clothing to Lynn.

"You'll never hear the end of it if she wins."

"Come on, Margo, I'm not that bad." Lynn shrugged while bouncing a baseball in her hand, only to have her friend narrow her eyes at her. "Okay, maybe a little, but I promise I'll be fair to the nerd."

The ball in her hand was then taken away, prompting her to look over to the taker.

"Come on, then, can't be just bark and no bite." Julius said, walking backwards to the open field behind him.

"Oh, it is on!" Lynn ran towards the teen.

Both Lisa and Margo sighed at the sight of the two.

"Who even is that other fella'?" Margo asked Lisa, pointing at Julius.

"Fellow scientist."

* * *

Somewhere in the town, two armored figures stood atop a building, overlooking the daily lives of the people of Royal Woods.

One of them has made himself known to the town, this one was pacing around, occasionally looking over the sides of the building.

"Easy, Korax."

"How? I need to go out there and defeat those so-called protectors of this planet. My failures from before was unacceptable."

"Barzal had no qualms with that. Why should you?"

Korax then looked behind him to see his comrade who was dressed in a lighter, but just as armored variant of the armor he has. Only his had blue lines running around it, making the markings.

"I have my pride."

* * *

"You know, it was odd that you actively sought me out and asked me to train you." Zed said, thinking back on what he and the boy were doing earlier.

"Of course; since the battle's are gonna get more serious starting now, I have to be able to fight better. I think you really helped me, too. Thanks for the advice from earlier, Zed." Lincoln smiled at his teacher.

The two then continued on, trying to find their other teammate.

A loud whack from seemingly out of nowhere caused the two to jump up slightly, which was followed by them looking around trying to find the source of the sound. Another one helped them in locating the general direction of the source, and off in that direction they went.

It didn't take too long before Lincoln and Zed managed to spot a couple of people along the walkway.

They arrived shortly after, notifying Lisa and Margo of their presence.

"Lincoln?" Lisa quirked an eyebrow.

"Where's Julius?" Zed asked.

Margo pointed to the person in question with her thumb, with Zed and Lincoln following the trajectory of where the girl was pointing at.

Out in the field, Julius was preparing for another throw, and he did so with a slightly botched pitching movement. Lynn was just able to hit the ball.

Julius simply watched as the ball flew over him, and sighed once he saw it land.

"Had enough yet?" Lynn said, prompting Julius to turn to her.

"We'll call it a draw." Julius responded.

"No way, you scored less ball than I managed to hit!" Lynn protested.

"Hey, at least I was being a sport about it." Julius retorted, shrugging as he did so.

"Pfft, in a real match, you would not have lasted even a minute against me." Lynn spat back.

"Alright, that's enough, kiddos." Zed called out to them, waving his hand.

Lynn and Julius returned to the walkway, while Lincoln came back with the ball in his hand.

"Here you go, Lynn." Lincoln handed the ball back to the jock.

"But you know," Lynn began, turning to Julius, "You're not as bad as I thought you'd be at the game."

"You ain't seen noth-"

"But you're still a chump compared to me! Smell ya later! Come on, Margo!" Lynn said before she quickly ran off.

"So sorry about this, guys." Margo rubbed the back of her head.

"Ah, 's okay." Zed assured. "How come you're not curious about Julius suddenly hanging out with us?"

"What's there to be curious about?" Margo shrugged, before running off to join her friend. "Wait up!"

"Now," Zed turned to the others, "What have we learned today?"

* * *

"So, anymore questions, Lisa?" Julius asked.

"I do, in fact." Lisa confirmed.

"Lay it on me."

"During our first encounter, I saw you dismantling a piece of an arcade cabinet. Why's that?"

"Ah, I was looking for something called a mind scrambler. It looks a bit like a gel. Sadly, I couldn't find one, or wasn't in time to extract one. I'm pretty sure it's dispersed after the whole shebang at the mall." Julius pouted.

"That is unfortunate." Lisa concurred.

"Mind what now?" Lincoln said, walking over to where the two were alongside Zed, both of them carrying a couple of drinks in their hands.

"Nothing, just something Lisa and I were talking about."

"Mind scrambler, I heard." Zed placed one cup in front of Julius, and another in front Lisa.

Sighing, Julius replied, "Yeah, the mind scrambler, a gel that sticks on electronic devices and turns anyone in contact with anything it stuck itself onto, into crazed maniacs. I've heard of two cases yesterday."

"One at the arcade, and one at the gun store." Lincoln snapped his fingers.

Zed, who had been taking a sip on his drink, stopped and raised an eyebrow, "Doesn't the psionic gels only stick itself on electronic devices, as you said? Then how come it also affected the guy who took a whole gun store hostage? The effects kick in 5 minutes into contact with its victims, no?"

"Yes, and it's possible that the second case happened because the guy was affected through a stray gel in his phones or anything he has with him. Your point?" Julius crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

"Well, police search revealed that he had nothing with him. Witnesses reported having seen the man waiting outside the store for more than 5 minutes. Not only that, but I thought the gels only work on direct contact when it integrates itself with a device's blue light?"

Both Lincoln and Lisa stopped drinking once Zed finished, doing a double take afterwards.

Julius, on the other hand,had his mouth hanging low. He quickly shut it so he could recollect his thoughts. Once he did so, he spoke up, "Zed, what the heck? How do you know all that? How much do you know?"

"What? I only know as much as you go guys do."

"Bull-no, I refuse to believe that!" Julius slammed his hands on the table.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down now!" Lincoln got between the two, though more in trying to stop Julius as Zed was barely fazed.

"Why don't we talk about something else?" Lisa suggested.

"I don't mind." Zed nodded in agreement, only to feel something, prompting him to clutch his stomach. "You know, just throwing this out here, but did anyone else feel as if something was wrong yesterday?"

"Like what?" Lincoln inquired.

"I don't know, just that I got a feeling around the time the attack happened yesterday."

Lincoln began giving Zed's words some thought, before he too, remembered something from the day in question. He slowly looked back up to the others.

"Anything of interest, Lincoln?" Lisa asked.

"Well… has anyone else been hearing a voice?"

"Voice?" Zed tilted his head slightly in curiosity.

"Yeah, some time during the gun store incident, I heard a voice. It said something about the people who aren't capable of coping around the attacks."

This time, Lincoln really got their attention; everyone were wide eyed, on different scales for each of them. Lisa's were the widest, Julius had a hint of terror in his, while Zed was quick to calm himself down over the revelation.

"Yeah, it's kinda been bothering me." Lincoln twiddled his thumbs. "But at the same time, I think that's what helped me set-up the barrier."

"The voice?" Lisa said incredulously.

"Look, let's take a moment to calm down, okay?" Zed suggested, waving his hand as he did so. "Let's try to focus on one thing at a ti-"

Zed's words were cut short when a scream was a heard. It was close, and the quartet promptly shifted their focus onto the source, and they saw numerous people frozen in place while a familiar Commander made his way into the area.

"Where is he!?" Korax's shout boomed.

"Seriously!?" Lisa said disbelief, hopping off of her chair.

"Alright, Julius, Lincoln, we'll leave it to ya." Zed looked to the two.

"Don't worry, Zed, we'll make this quick!" Lincoln gave a thumbs up.

"Quicker if we are to go now!" Julius voiced his frustration as Korax continued to waltz around like it's nobody's business. "Come on!"

Lincoln nodded and followed the young man in finding a place to safely transform at. Luckily, the nearby snack bar had been emptied out once the Commander made his presence known.

Korax looked around, and everywhere he set his eyes on, people were fleeing the area. Yet, no sign of any of the protectors.

" _I know two of them are here._ " Korax thought to himself.

"Stop, you fiend!"

Korax turned to the source of the voice, and found two figures stood atop the snack bar. He looked with great disinterest. Or at least, until he realized who they might be.

"You will no longer advan- woah!"

Lincoln was interrupted by a blast of silver energy.

"Okay, distraction won't work." Lincoln stated as he landed on the ground.

"Nope; it worked well!" Julius claimed, appearing from the corner of Korax's sight.

The Commander reacted well to Julius' punch, and sidestepped away from it. He dodged another, and another. After a while, he crossed his arms in front of him and let one punch connect. It worked as he planned, the armored man thought he had staggered him, only for the Commander to slide one arm under, knocking it upwards, and countering with a punch to his opponent's chest.

Julius staggered, and held his chest once he regained his footing.

Lincoln gasped and quickly joined the fight. He made his entrance by jumping up and attempting a superman punch on the Commander, only to have his fist caught in mid-air.

"Slow." Korax spoke.

Lincoln didn't even had time to react before Korax pulled him closer, and struck his elbow pit with his own, earning a pained grunt, before he was knocked away with a powerful spinning backhand. Surprisingly, it only made him stagger by two steps from the impact point.

"But resilient." Korax noted.

The Commander prepared to continue his onslaught, only for someone to jump in front of him. Another one of his kind, but with blue markings on his armor as opposed to his silver.

"You can't keep stepping out of line, Korax!" Said the other Commander, his voice deeper than Korax's, and had a little bit of echo.

"I managed to locate the 'protectors', at least now, didn't I?" Korax shouted back, pointing to the recovering Lincoln, who was soon joined by Julius.

"Fine, at least there are two of them. I will ensure that you do not get overwhelmed." Said the other, pulling out a sword.

The two Commanders then looked back at the two protectors, causing them to flinch a little.

The other Commander readied his sword, and slashed at the air, generating an energy slash that was sent towards their two opponents.

Lincoln and Julius braced themselves for impact, only for a green energy-coated figure to jump in front of them and slam his hands onto the ground, causing for a barrier made of earth to erupt and take the air slash, exploding into bits as a result.

Once the dust cleared from the explosion, Lincoln returned focus on the battle, and found that their savior was none other than Oswald, who was already transformed and facing the Commanders.

Oswald took note of Korax.

"So, is this where we fight again?" Oswald asked.

Before Korax answered, the other one stepped in front of him, "No, I will be the one to challenge you."

"Very well." Oswald said, taking note of the Commander's sword, which prompted him to create another rod out of the earth.

A brief stare down ensued between Oswald and the blue Commander. Just as quickly as it happened, the two zipped towards one another and caused a shockwave to rip through the air, before they brought their fight somewhere else, with Oswald taking the lead.

All the combatants briefly looked to where the two went off to, before turning back to one another.

"Fine, at least I'll have you two to… whatever." Korax shook his head, raising his fists in preparation to fight.

"Oh no, you took us by surprise there earlier, not this time!" Lincoln pointed at the silver Commander, before he too took up a fighting stance.

Julius nodded and raised his fists in a similar manner to Korax.

The combatants all yelled as they rushed towards one another.

Meanwhile, Zed and Lisa had been watching from inside the snack bar, wide eyed as the battle before them unfolded.

"You know this isn't the most ideal hiding place, right?" Lisa asked the man.

"Of course I do, but I think considering what they're capable of, don't you think it's best we find the closest shelter before running off to a better hiding spot?" Zed answered.

"I suppose that makes sense… Huh."

"...Besides, I thought it'd be comically funny if we literally just jumped in here despite the threat at hand." Zed quickly added, earning a look of disbelief from Lisa.

"Can we just go now?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah, why not?" Zed nodded, leading the way out afterwards.

They managed to take several steps away from the bar and decided to cut through to the nearest walkway and follow along its path.

Along the way however, they just passed Lynn and Margo, who were going the opposite direction. Thankfully, they both stopped just in time.

"Lynn? What are you doing, that way's not safe!" Lisa warned.

"What? Then how come there were people running this way?" Lynn pointed to where she was going. Only after that did she noticed why, and brought her focus onto the miniature catering area. "Oh."

"Exactly, now come on!" Lisa motioned for the jock to come with them.

"Uh, come on, Lynn. We don't got much time!" Margo worriedly called to her friend.

"Wait, who's that metal dude? He looks awesome!" Lynn looked at the more mechanically armored fighter in awe, not realizing who it was. "He looks like a tank!"

"I understand your amazement, but trust me, it's better if you look at it when there's no battle!" Lisa ushered the jock to hurry up, tugging on her shirt.

Lynn eventually did gave in, and followed the team under Zed's lead.

"So, where's that Oswald guy? How come he's not helping them?" Lynn asked.

"Hoho, he's out there, alright. Fighting his own battle." Zed answered, before looking up, "And I only hope that he knows how to minimize the chaos."

* * *

Oswald and the blue Commander stood in front of each other in the middle of the streets, both had their weapons raised. At this point in their battle, civilians were no longer part of their concern as they had already evacuated.

The former took a deep breath, before speaking up, "You're holding up quite well."

"Korax can be considered an amateur still, despite his experience," The blue Commander replied, "It's why he was incapable of contending with you."

"I'd suspected as much. Now, why did you challenge me?" Oswald asked, readying his weapon just in case.

"No particular reason, I simply wanted to gauge the strongest fighter's strength before I too, join the battles in later days." Answered the Commander, spreading his arms outwards. "Oh, but before I forget, my name is Lund."

"Heh, Oswald." Responded the green fighter. Then, he assumed a more prepared battle stance, saying one last thing, "But you know, I'm not the strongest around here."

The blue Commander, Lund, looked at his opponent with an almost solemn look, despite his helmet. With a nod, he said, "I know."

Without another word, the two clashed once more, simply sending gusts of wind of fair strength in every direction. They soon broke off from it, regaining some distance, before preparing for another go.

The second clash followed shortly after, but this time, they didn't try to gain some distance. Instead, they break off, and continued combating at a close range.

It was a close battle; Oswald swung his rod weapon, but Lund manages to deflect it with a quick swipe of his sword. The same could be said for the Commander. With every slash, Oswald parries by rotating his weapon in the opposite direction of the attack.

Be that as it may, Oswald couldn't help but feel as though Lund was getting closer. Attempts to block and deflect were becoming increasingly difficult. It went on, until…

With a grunt, Oswald backed away once he realized that Lund had gotten far too close for comfort, and raised his weapon in an attempt to block a wide downwards slash from the Commander. The attack broke his weapon in half, forcing him to jump back with the halved rod.

Oswald looked at his weapon, but remained fairly calm about it. He used it to his advantage; he now has two weapons, and the range should be even by now.

He ran forward, before jumping sideways towards his enemy, increasing his momentum, allowing him to create a strong swing to help him strike his opponent with.

Lund raised his weapon in response to the attack, and it resulted in him being slightly staggered. He was quick to notice Oswald's follow-up, a swing aimed at his sides, which he responded to by pushing off the other stick in the other direction, allowing him to roll to his side, and successfully dodge the attack.

But Oswald was relentless, he was quick to continue his onslaught, and delivered a double strike aimed at the Commander's head. Lund raised his weapon at an angle, letting the attack slide upwards along the edge of his blade before elbowing Oswald away.

Unfortunately for the Commander, Oswald was able to take the attack, and brought the two sticks together, having charged it with energy, and causing an explosion that knocked away both of them.

Both fighters tried to catch their breath once they regained some distance. Oswald had his arms crossed in front of him to defend from the explosion, while Lund was getting back on his feet.

Instead of continuing to attack, Lund… sets his sword on the ground, keeping both his hands on it.

Oswald still prepared himself out of reflex.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm waiting for you to get a weapon." Lund stated, earning a confused look from Oswald, which could be told even with his helmet. "Unless of course, you want to proceed with hand-to-hand combat?"

Oswald relaxed himself a little, before looking around. It didn't take long before he noticed a toy store nearby. One he zipped to.

Inside, he found what he needed.

The man ran back to the opposite end of the Commander, a foam sword in the form of a pirate cutlass in his hand. By tightening his grip on it, he transmuted it into the real deal.

"Let's go then." Oswald pointed his newly made sword to the Commander.

* * *

"Woah!" Lincoln exclaimed as he just barely sidestepped a punch from Korax, which even after coming into contact with the air, was able to cause a powerful shockwave.

Lincoln was quick to recover, and grabbed Korax's arm, causing the Commander to thrash around, nearly breaking the boy's balance.

Thankfully, Julius managed to step in and… deliver a punch at Korax's face, staggering him, along with Lincoln who was still latched on the Commander's arm.

Once he regained his balance, Lincoln let go and turned to Julius.

"What the heck was that!?" He asked.

Unfortunately, Korax did not waste any time in getting one back at the two, by firstly punching Lincoln in the face, knocking him away. He quickly turned to Julius afterwards, who threw another punch, which he ducked under, and countered with a punch to the guts. The result was violent, causing Julius to jump up a bit, as well as let out a sort of retch.

Lincoln shook his head, trying to shake off his dizziness, and returned his focus onto the battle, just in time to see Korax preparing another punch. This time, charged with energy.

Panic set in, pumping adrenaline into the boy as he pushed himself off the ground, and immediately shifted into a full burst sprint. He was thankful for it as he was able to set himself between the two, and raised his arms much like he did yesterday.

But nothing happened, and the boy was left to catch the Commander's fist, which he did, but suffered knockback as a result and caused him to bump into Julius, who thankfully managed to offer support.

The two grunted as Korax kept pushing his fist forward, hoping to break through their defenses. Lincoln tried to answer the Commander's punch by coating his hands with energy, an attempt to counter the attack.

Korax took a deep breath, before letting out a loud yell, further increasing his energy output and successfully breaking through the youngsters' defense, sending them flying away.

Lincoln was sent upwards in an arc while his ally skidded across the ground and into the nearby snack bar. Lincoln landed somewhere further than that, blacking out from the impact.

* * *

Lincoln slowly opened his eyes, his vision still blurry from having been knocked out earlier. He looked around, and could tell he was moving. Or rather, being moved, as he could feel from how he was unable to do much. He blacked out again.

With a groan, Lincoln finally found the strength to pry his eyes open. Looking over him, was Zed. He was shocked, and it forced him to fully awaken with a gasp, but it also got Zed to hush him, which he listened to.

Suddenly, pain coursed through the boy's body, along with a monster headache. This forced him to hold his head in response to that pain, only to realize something else.

"Huh!?" Lincoln exclaimed, quickly shutting his mouth afterwards. He was out of his suit. He looked over to Zed, "What happened?"

"That fight really messed you up." Zed firstly stated the obvious.

"Yeah?" Lincoln nodded, taking note of the case. His eyes then widened in realization, "Wait, what about Julius?"

"Don't worry, the Commander's still searching." Zed raised his hands.

Lincoln readjusted his sitting pose.

"How do I beat him?" Asked the boy.

"Remember what we did very early today?" Zed responded with a question of his own.

"Yeah."

"And what we talked about?"

"...me being too stiff?" Lincoln assumed.

Nodding, Zed added, "Yeah, you're still doing that."

"I can't help it!"

"Calm down. Now, before I continue on lecturing you, I need to ask you something. What can you tell about our enemy today?"

Lincoln tried to answer, but had to take a few more seconds of thinking before he could come up with anything. With a shrug, he answered, "He's violent?"

"That is indeed true." Zed nodded, before crossing his arms. "Anything else?"

"Well, while I can't exactly expect his attacks, they aren't too fast for me. I think he telegraphs it pretty well."

"Oh?" Zed raised his eyebrow while smiling.

"When he first caught me there, I could see his head jerk to where he would hit me, and that's where he hit: my elbow." Lincoln elaborated, holding said part of his arm.

"Go on, you're gonna need to remember every little bit you've seen."

Nodding, Lincoln continued, "Then, when he was going for a punch, the way he moved made it clear. I dodged that one."

"It's the jumpiness of his motion." Zed stated.

"Huh?"

"Think about it, you said his head jerks to wherever he targets, and he moves in a way that telegraphs what he wants to do. And the only reason you were unable to dodge any of them seems to be when you're caught off-guard. Much like the first attack."

Lincoln began searching through his memory, every little bit he could remember about the fight.

"Wait… you're not wrong. I- I remember it! Most of the time he-"

A pained scream had them swiveling their head to where they heard it. From there, they saw Julius flying through, skidding across the ground for several meters upon landing before coming to a stop.

"Julius!" Lincoln cried out, running over to him, with Zed right behind him. "Are you okay? Get up!"

Zed set his eyes from the two, to where Julius came from, with Korax emerging from the trees.

"Ai' na…" Zed sighed.

Korax walked towards them with his fists clenched, and a deathly look that the others could feel despite his helmet. He came to a stop at a fair distance away from his enemies.

In spite of that however, Lincoln didn't falter. Instead, he jumped to his feet, and stepped in front of Julius. Bringing out his belt, he quickly transformed, regaining his height boost and the powers bestowed upon him.

Korax brought one fist close to his face, reeled back, and charged it up explosively with a swirling silver energy.

Lincoln braced himself, steadying his breath as he did so.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you guys." Lincoln proclaimed.

Korax let out a yell as he punched the air, causing a shockwave as he fired a blast of energy towards the boy.

In response, Lincoln pulled back his arms, before pushing them forward in a defensive manner. Unbeknownst to him, his belt flashed like crazy. Before he knew it, a dome materialized before him, only that it was pointed directly at the blast itself.

Upon impact, the blast dispersed.

Julius, having recovered a little, could see through his HUD, a little insight of what the dome did to the blast.

"It redirects the energy…" He quietly muttered.

Lincoln was just as surprised, but the barrier disappeared as soon as it popped out. He then returned focus onto his opponent, who shared the surprise.

Unfortunately, the Commander was quick to recover, and he was back on the offensive.

Lincoln took a deep breath before he too, jumped back into battle.

The fight began with Lincoln barely avoiding a punch from the Commander, followed by a few more, before he stopped an arm swipe, giving him the opportunity to strike back by throwing in a couple of punches on his opponent's chest before he backed away.

However, Korax wouldn't back down, and immediately tried countering by leaping towards the boy. He missed when the boy rolled away, but was able to catch him by throwing his nearest arm to the boy, barely managing to keep the ranger between his fingers.

Wasting no time, Korax pulled Lincoln closer and threw a punch at his head, knocking the boy backwards.

Lincoln quickly recovered, and saw Korax preparing another punch aimed at his head. He dodged, before catching the Commander's arm over his shoulder, and blocking another arm swipe, something that locked the two together.

At this point, it's anyone's game. The lock forced them to move around in an attempt to try and find an opening to break them off. They eventually began spinning around, gaining speed as it went on.

Lincoln began to feel dizzy, but persevered. In fact, he had figured out a way to make an opening for himself. It'll be a risk, but one he's well aware of. Maybe it won't help him improve, but it's worth a shot.

Using the momentum of their spin, Lincoln launched himself off of one foot, forcing Korax to stop moving, allowing him to push his blocking arm forward into an elbow strike that struck the Commander on the chest and causing considerable amount of damage.

Keeping his other arm still holding on to one of Korax's, Lincoln threw several more punches at him. His targets were the chest, and the sides. A little off-target at times, but he did it, enough to force the Commander to try and break away from the lock.

Lincoln felt himself being pulled closer by his locking arm, and was unable to let go in time, resulting in him being slammed into the Hexonian Commander's body. A move that, while also causing damage to the performer, also forced Lincoln to break the lock.

Both fighters backed away, with Lincoln trying to regain composure from the attack. Unfortunately, Korax couldn't care less about his injuries.

The Commander grunted, running towards Lincoln again.

"Watch out!" Julius warned, inputting a code on his braces afterwards.

Pulling out the large disc piece on the back of his armor, Julius tossed it like a frisbee, striking the Commander with enough force to stagger him.

Lincoln noticed the situation Korax was in, and decided to step in to deliver numerous quick strikes on the Commander's body, not without a yell of determination.

"You can do it!" Zed cheered.

"Mr. Zed!" Came Lynn's voice, causing Zed -and momentarily, Julius- to turn to her, and saw that she had Lisa and Margo in tow.

"Lynn? What are you guys doing here?" Zed asked.

"I'd ask you the same; you split from the group!" Lynn said.

"Should we really be talking? Looks like it's gettin' real intense here!" Margo shakily said, pointing to the battle nearby.

Zed was about to reply, but Julius interrupted.

"No; it's going to end!"

Jumping forward, Julius joined in with the Royal Woods Ranger in fighting off the Commander. Thankfully at this point, the tables have already turned. Picking up the fallen disc, Julius entered by swinging the disc on Korax's head, further staggering the alien.

Lincoln ran to his techno armored ally, looked to one another, and nodded, ready to finish the battle.

Looking back to the recovering Commander, the two prepared their finishing attacks. Lincoln had his arm reeled back, charging it with energy. Julius had just materialized the lever, pulling it thrice like before, only that it charged his disc this time.

Letting out a loud yell, the two ran forward, with Lincoln jumping up and ready to strike from above, while Julius remained on the ground, ready for an attack from down under.

The two made their contact on the seemingly helpless Commander; Lincoln punched him in the face, and Julius swung his disc, hitting the Commander on the sides. Although the contact felt like it took a while, it was in reality, immediate, and the result was a large explosion that forced the bystanders to shield themselves but thankfully wasn't enough to reach.

Once the explosion cleared, Lincoln and Julius were still standing, but badly injured and breathing heavily. The battle was won, the others realized this, too.

But the enemy wasn't dead. Korax shifted, notifying the fighters, before getting back to his feet. They saw from the Commander, hunched down and just as badly injured, his eyes staring at them with anger and aggression behind his slightly shattered helmet.

"I'll be back…" He forced out, causing Lincoln and Julius to flinch, before raising one hand up to summon a small group of Hexons.

The four Hexons ran towards them, two of them were taken on by Lincoln and Julius, who both effortlessly dispatched them with a single punch.

But then came the other two, who managed to go past them.

"Oh no…" Lincoln blurted, thinking that Zed alone might not be able to take on two at once. But the Commander is getting away. It's either him, or the Hexon.

Unfortunately, them thinking was enough to slow them down, and the Hexons closed in, much to the horrors of the two Loud girls and Margo.

However, Zed stepped forward to the closest one and delivered a quick, rotating hook kick, sending the creature lying on its back. He then shifted focus to the other one, just managing to duck under a punch from it, which he answered by throwing a quick, sharp punch to the creature's guts.

Both of them were staggered, and Zed decided to finish it. With a small running start, Zed jumped up and dropkicked one of them, causing it to disintegrate. Then, the last one. Not wanting to let it get back up, he jumped, and aimed his knee down on it, striking it hard on the face, enough to make it disintegrate almost immediately.

Zed was now in a kneeling position, and he was somewhat tired out from the quick takedown. He then looked to the others to see that they had a look of surprise.

"...There's your proof of me having gone to battle…" He said.

* * *

After the whole mess, Zed led Lynn, Lisa, and Margo out of the park, where they met with Lincoln and Julius. They gave the excuse that they were separated when the attack began, which Lisa helped to convince Lynn with by confirming of the case.

Of course, it didn't take much more than that. Margo was a little more suspicious, but decided to not speak on it. The jock and her friend soon decided to leave, wanting a rest after the day they just had.

"I'm gonna bring the car around, okay?" Zed told the remaining people, walking off soon after.

The moment Zed was out of sight, Julius blew a raspberry and said, "No thanks, I'll just walk back home. See you two later, okay?"

"Oh, that's too bad. Alright then." Lincoln said, a little disappointed over their quick parting.

Then, just as Julius left, the two Loud siblings spotted a familiar face coming their way.

"Oswald!" Lincoln called.

The man stopped just near the two sibling. "So, is it over?"

Lincoln's enthusiasm died out almost immediately.

"...No, actually. He got away." Lincoln confessed.

"Slippery snake." Oswald commented.

"But still, that Commander was really tough. How did you beat him before?" Lincoln asked.

Oswald raised an eyebrow, "How did you know what his rank was? I haven't told you that yet."

"Zed told me."

Oswald sighed, "Of course."

"What are they?" Lisa interjected, prompting the two to look over to her.

"They are the ones responsible for taking down a planet in order to conquer it. Dangerous ones, try being more careful next time; you look like a mess." Oswald answered, looking over to Lincoln. "Anyway, wasn't Julius with you?"

"He left." Both Lincoln and Lisa said.

"Ah." Oswald nodded. He then looked away, before raising a hand slightly while walking away, "Well, see you later."

"Huh." Lincoln said, watching as Oswald left.

"Hey guys!" Zed honked his car, pulling up close to the siblings.

The two didn't hesitate to get in, with Zed taking off soon.

"Let's go and pick up Luan, first, alright?" Zed said, with the others expressing their agreements.

Thus, the day was over for them. Sure, the sun's just past zenith, but the battle had taken quite a toll on the young kids' minds.

Lincoln spent the entire car ride looking out the window, thinking of the citizens of the town. He briefly glanced over to Zed, before looking down on his disguised belt.

" _Can you hear me?_ " Lincoln thought to himself.

His responses were a series of beeps that he was somehow able to understand.

* * *

Julius was walking by himself, inspecting the injuries he suffered. Once he was done with that, he growled in frustration.

"I need a better power source." He said to himself.

* * *

Lynn and Margo, having bumped into some of their other friends, were conversing about the events they experienced today. Their reactions varied, some were surprised, some seemed skeptical, and others simply listened on.

* * *

Oswald rode on his bike, having already returned to the neighbourhood. He came to a stop near a house, waited for the garage door to open, before simply pushing his bike inside where he took off his helmet.

He looked around for a bit, before lifting up his shirt to inspect a slash mark across his chest. He let his shirt drop, and sighed.

"I'm gonna need something to unwind." He said to himself. "It was a draw, and he never once used any underhanded tactics. Odd one."

* * *

With the last of the sun's light dying out, Zed finally arrived at the Loud House, dropping off Lincoln, Lisa, and Luan, waving them goodbye before driving off.

Whereas the other two were already inside, Lincoln waited for a bit, until Zed was completely out of sight.

Again, he looked to his belt.

"We're gonna need to talk." He said quietly and cautiously.

 _End of Chapter._

* * *

 **End Notes: Only around two more chapters to go.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes: This is gonna be a two-parter. Strap yourselves in.**

* * *

 _Chapter 10. A glimpse into the unknown_

"I guess I'll see you later, then. Alright." Lincoln said as he walked out of the kitchen, before putting his phone away and back in his pocket.

"Hey, dude!" Luna called from near the door, getting the boy's attention, "Sam invited me to go out, and how could I say no- I mean, of course I'd come along. She's friend! So I want you to help keep the house in check, alright?"

"Um, sure, Luna." Lincoln nodded.

"Rockin'." Luna smiled. "Well, I'll see you guys later."

Luna then promptly exited from the house, leaving Lincoln alone in the living room.

Sighing, Lincoln looked to the staircase as he said to himself, "Well, now that Leni, Luna, Luan, and Lynn are gone, I guess that just leaves 6 of us here."

With another sigh, Lincoln walked to the stairs and up, coming to a stop right in front of Lynn and Lucy's bedroom. He saw that the door was opened, and could hear Lucy "sigh"ing from inside.

Curious, he decided to greet her. Firstly peeking through, he could see numerous paper balls near the Goth's coffin. With a knock, he got his sister's attention.

"Lincoln?"

"Hey." Replied Lincoln as he went over to Lynn's bed and sat on it. "What's wrong? You look gloomier than usual."

"Sigh… I just haven't been able to write any poems lately." Lucy began, getting a nod from Lincoln. "Maybe it's because of me sneaking in Zed's car back then."

"Speaking of which, why did you?" Lincoln tilted his head.

"I… felt a strange energy in him." Continued the Goth.

Usually, Lincoln wouldn't think much of her words, perhaps a little more so considering who she was talking about, but he figured he might just humor her.

"And?"

"It's like his soul is disturbed. It was something that baffled even the spirits, they couldn't read him." Lucy finished. "Why do you think that is?"

Lincoln, caught by surprise, tried to think of something to say. That was, to say the least, unexpected.

"Well, maybe it's not something you should worry about?" Lincoln said with uncertainty.

"...I guess."

"Sorry that I can't help you with your poems." Lincoln got up.

"It's okay."

With a nod and a smile, Lincoln exited the room, making sure to close the door to give his sister some privacy.

It got him thinking; what do the others think of everything that's going on?

To get his answer, Lincoln leaned against the wall between the Goth and the twins' doors, hoping to get something from the latter.

"So what if he's violent? He saved me! He saved those other people!" Lola said defensively.

"What if it was an accident? What if he didn't intend it and was only focused on fighting that thing?" Lana retorted.

"You've been like this since we got back home, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Lana…"

"Nothing, okay!?"

"Is it because he was "bullying" that animal?" Lola asked. "Come on, that was ages ago!"

"For all we know it could have been our pets!" Lana shouted, causing Lola to flinch at stare at her in surprise.

…

"...It's them, isn't it?" Lola finally realized. "You're afraid that he might get into a fight with our pets if they're… changed? Well, what about Hopps? At least you still have him, right?"

Lana didn't respond, due to which Lincoln decided to peek in, and was surprised to find that tears were running down Lana's face.

"You… lost Hopps, too? When?"

"It was during my search. The attack began, and I think he got scared, so he must have jumped out."

Lana sniffled, before wiping her tears away.

"I'm sorry, I need some time alone…"

Without another word, Lana left the room, with Lola following her only as far as the doorway.

The animal lover didn't notice Lincoln, but the diva did, which got her looking at her brother.

In turn, Lincoln looked back to Lola, before she quietly returned to her room.

Lincoln slumped against the wall, sliding down until he was sitting down. He buried his face in his hands, sighing afterwards.

"I… I never realized…" The boy quietly said to himself.

" _Please, collect your thoughts._ " Said a voice inside the boy's head, instantly striking as familiar to him.

With the voice now out, Lincoln decided to get some answers.

"Who are you?"

" _...I have no idea. All I know is I came into being when I landed on your planet._ "

"Are you an alien?"

" _Maybe._ "

Before he could ask another question, Lincoln was interrupted by Lisa, who peeked out through her door, looking at him expectantly.

"I require your presence immediately." Lisa cut straight to the point.

* * *

At the McBride residence, its sole resident, Clyde McBride, exited the house. Upon doing so, he locked the door.

Turning back to the world outside, he gave himself a little stretch before walking forward. Only to be stopped when he heard a clang from the house next door.

But that's weird…

"I thought that house was cleared up weeks ago." Clyde thought out loud, walking towards the house. "Didn't realize somebody moved in. Or remember any."

As he got closer, he could hear light grunts, adding to his curiosity. Upon reaching the door, he hopes to at least greet his new unknown neighbor.

Right there before him, was Oswald, a wrench in one hand while the other was used to inspect his motorbike.

"Huh!?" Clyde jumped up upon setting his eyes on the man.

Oswald looked at the boy with a neutral expression upon hearing him.

"Y-you're, my new neighbor?" Clyde asked whilst pointing at Oswald.

"Apparently." Oswald said, finishing up on his work before getting up. Setting down the wrench, he grabbed a handkerchief and wiped his hands with it. "What do you want?"

"Wait, since when?"

"Around a couple days ago."

"A couple- but that would mean you moved here during the time we were at the mall!" Clyde pointed out.

"Early that morning, in fact." Oswald added.

"Huh." Clyde stared blankly.

Oswald moved away and began pushing his bike outside, with Clyde following him suit before the garage door closed.

"So, where ya off to?" Oswald asked.

"What?"

"You didn't come out here for no reason now, did you? Where to?"

* * *

Back with Lincoln, who was now in Lisa's room, seated on a stool while waiting for her sister to finish with the tablet-like device Julius gave to her.

"Now," Lisa finally spoke up, "although Julius created the interface simple enough to resemble that of a phone, I decided to change it if I was to use it. In the process however, I managed to crack into the coding of this device and found out that I was able to do so much more with this tech."

"Uh-huh?" Lincoln nodded, a little confused.

"Because of that, I was able to streamline my work as I've gained nearly complete access to everything in it."

"Yeah?"

"Which is why I built this," Lisa said as she held out a helmet to Lincoln, which the boy took from her hands, "It's for monitoring your brainwaves. Or similar activities that are normally, invisible to the unaided eye."

Knowing exactly where this was going, Lincoln put on the helmet.

"Perfect, I shall now commence observation of your brain activity." Lisa stated. "Finally, I've been meaning to do this ever since your transformation. I wanted to see what about you have changed. Firstly, your psychology."

"Yeah, I guess that's fair." Lincoln smiled.

"I will also need further research on your belt. It's fascinating; it has been the source of everything that's changed you since it's discovery-"

Lisa, realizing what she said, quickly shut her mouth.

Lincoln noticed this, too, and looked down to his disguised belt with a look of worry.

"Apologies, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay." Lincoln looked back to Lisa. "Maybe there's a reason for all this?"

Lincoln's smile returned, although weaker than before, it was still genuine.

The tablet then rang, which Lisa quickly rushed to after remembering of the presence of another individual in the room. Lily, who was soundly asleep in her crib.

With a swipe, a screen popped up, showing Julius who was walking around.

"Yo." Greeted the fellow inventor.

"Hello, Julius. What news do you bring?" Lisa responded while typing on her laptop, before plugging the tablet into it. "Hang on, let me just project it over to my laptop so we can see you better."

Lisa did as she said, and the screen booted up on the laptop, giving a much clearer picture for the two siblings.

"Cool," Julius commented, "but anyway, I'm gonna be out today to look for the mind scramblers. Think it's high time I get back to that. Oh, speaking of them, I'll send you the blueprints for the detector tomorrow, alright?"

"Detector? I suppose that's fine." Lisa nodded.

"Good luck with your search, Julius." Lincoln wished.

"Yeah, and you, take it easy." Julius said with a smile before ending the call.

Lisa then turned back to Lincoln, "By the way, why aren't you with Clyde today? Your call was audible even up here."

"Oh that, I might go later. But for now, I just want to relax for a bit." Lincoln explained.

"I see." Lisa nodded, before going back to check on the monitors for the helmet.

* * *

Oswald came to a stop in front of a store, which he looked at the name of as he raised his helmet's visor.

Gus' Games n' Grubs.

He then looked to his passenger, who got off and took off his helmet before handing it back to him.

"Thanks for the ride, Oswald." Clyde said.

"Don't worry about it." Said Oswald as he put away the second helmet while pulling back down the visor of his.

"Bye now!" Clyde waved to Oswald.

"Aye." Oswald nodded before riding off.

Clyde continued to wave until the rider was a small dot in his eyes, after which he stopped and turned to the store before entering it.

He took note of the nearby patrons after noticing sudden movements from them.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Greeted the boy.

"What were you doing hanging out with that Oswald guy for?" Liam asked.

"Funny story, he's actually-"

"Out of my way, dweeb." Said a familiar voice, causing Clyde to jump away in surprise.

Turning to the voice, Clyde raised an eyebrow, "Chandler?"

"Come on, man, you didn't have to do that." One of the redheaded boy's lackeys, a red-jacketed boy, said.

"Calm down, Marlo, you gotten soft or something?" Chandler spat.

"How 'bout I turn all _three_ of you soft by pounding you to the ground?" The voice of a familiar tomboy threatened.

"Oh look, the loser convoy is here, let's get out of here." Chandler scoffed before walking away to the deeper section of the store.

For a brief moment, Marlo turned back and gave an apologetic bow of his head before joining the others.

"Wow, he must still be mad that I forced him to play dodgeball." Zed said out of nowhere while carrying a tray filled with foodstuffs.

"What the- Zed?" Clyde voiced out his surprise.

"Oh yeah, he's actually the one who invited us here." Rusty explained.

"And he told us, to invite you and Lincoln." Liam added.

"Where is Lincoln, anyway?" Zach asked.

"He's uh…"

"He didn't come?" Zed deduced as he walked to the table where the gang was seated on.

"That sucks." Ronnie Anne said with a shrug as she joined Zed and the others.

"Yeah." Clyde nodded, before he realized something. "Oh! About Oswald… "

"What about him?" Ronnie Anne asked as she watched Clyde approach the table, before squeezing into the chair.

"Did you know he's actually my neighbor?" Clyde revealed.

Ronnie Anne, who had taken a drink, spat it out in surprise as she quickly darted her eyes to the boy, "For real!?"

"Yeah." Clyde nodded.

"Woah!" Rusty exclaimed.

"That's sorta cool." Liam added.

"Kinda dangerous, don't you think?" Zach asked.

"Maybe." Clyde shrugged.

"Maybe we can trade neighbors?" Ronnie Anne jokingly suggested whilst pointing at Zed.

"Zed's your neighbor?" Exclaimed the others.

"Yeah, found out yesterday." Ronnie Anne crossed her arms.

"Huh." Clyde said, only to notice that Zed was awfully focused on the game cabinets around them. "Say, you guys wanna go and play? How about it, Zed?"

The man, upon hearing his name, turned to his former students. "Huh? Oh uh, I've never actually played any of these…"

Once again, surprise was written all over his students' faces.

* * *

Somewhere in a music store…

Browsing a selection of guitar strings, was a blonde teenager with blue streaks in her hair. After a bit, she looked away to her friend.

"Hey, Luna, which one do you think I should get?" She asked, only to see that she was being awfully gloomy.

The rockstar Loud was leaned against a wall, gazing at the floor.

"Hey Luna!" Sam called again, this time getting her attention.

She had two guitar picks in her hand.

"Which one do you like most? This one -a pearly white one-, or this -an iridescent one-?" Sam asked, moving the second one in her hand, which brought a smile to her face. "I think I like this one."

"Sam, I know it's probably not the right time to ask… but what do you feel about-"

The sound of the door opening interrupted Luna, prompting both her and Sam to look over to the entrance. The rest of the goers inside also had their eyes there.

Standing at the entrance was Oswald, who casually strolled in, coming to a stop in front of a drum set on display.

He inspected the instrument, checking every sides of it. The other shoppers stared at him, a little nervous in his presence.

"Hm," Oswald said all of a sudden, nodding, before looking over at the cashier who flinched, "I'd like to get one of this kind, is that alright?"

Nodding furiously, the cashier said, "Yes, of course!"

She then motioned to the other workers to get on with placing Oswald's order.

The man walked over to the counter, digging through his jacket, which the others went full alert on. False alarm, as all he did was hand out a piece of paper, with an address.

"Send it here when it's ready, 'aight?" Oswald requested.

"Will you be making your purchase by card or-"

"Cash; never really got the whole concept of the credit cards and stuff." Oswald answered, before noticing something on the wall behind the cashier. Pointing at a keyboard, he added, "Throw that in, as well, aye?"

After that, he paid right there and then, before walking out.

Luna and Sam then went over to that counter, with the latter making her purchases, a new pick and strings. The two looked at each other before shifting their focus back on the entrance.

* * *

Oswald had just gotten on his bike, ready to put on his helmet.

"Hey!"

Turning to the source, Oswald saw who he could only remember as Lincoln's sister.

"Oh, it's you. What's your name, again?" He nonchalantly said.

"It's Luna." Answered the teen, with Oswald nodding. "So, I didn't know you played."

"Always have been, just haven't gotten time to get one for myself here yet. I mean, it's just a good way for me to unwind when stress builds up, you know?"

The two girls were surprised by the man's answer.

"I know, right?" Luna said.

"Yeah," Oswald said, having already put his helmet on, "Anyway, anything else before I go?"

Luna gave it some thought, all while Oswald looked around, only to notice something.

The others haven't caught on to him yet, but he saw a small flash out in the distance.

* * *

Lisa wrote down the results of Lincoln's brainwaves and other activities that were shown on her laptop, nodding and vocally expressing some hints of satisfaction.

Finally, she put away her notes, before turning to Lincoln.

"I believe the scans are done for now, I will commence analysis soon enough. In the meantime, why don't you get some rest?" Lisa absentmindedly spoke to Lincoln.

The boy didn't respond. He had his eyes on the floor, thinking.

"Lisa?" Lincoln spoke up, prompting the toddler to turn to him. "I know it's not exactly the right time to ask this but…"

Lincoln looked up to Lisa, preparing to say what he wanted.

"What do you think of Zed and the others?"

Lisa took a deep breath, giving the question some thought.

"I suppose… Zed is quite a respectable man despite his secrecy towards the whole Hexon case. Oswald… I don't trust him, shocker."

Lincoln was surprised to hear that.

"You don't like Oswald?"

"Never did, honestly. It's just that, although Zed does tend to induce headscratching confusion in what he tells us, Oswald is blunt. But he doesn't send his messages well, and overall just reeks of aggression."

"I see," Lincoln nodded, "What about Julius?"

"All I see in him is the unyielding passion for science. For that, I very much respect him."

"But he does seem to get cocky at times ,doesn't he?" Lincoln asked with a small smile.

"Indeed, but there is nothing wrong in having a little pride, no?"

Giving a hearty laugh, Lincoln said, "I guess that's true."

* * *

Julius walked down the streets, hands in pocket, and eyes up in the sky.

With a sigh, he spoke to himself, "That Lincoln kid… he's strong. Closer to Oswald than I am to him. He gets used to his powers quickly… it's a little worrisome."

Julius pulled out his hands and briefly buried his face in them. Rubbing it down, he let out another sigh.

"I hope I can finish the researches soon. I need a better power source. I want to be stronger…"

He just so happened to come to a stop after he said that, with which he followed by taking a deep breath.

After that, he turned to his side, and found that the building he was in front of was an ice-cream store.

"I could use something to calm my nerves with." He said, before nodding as he walked in.

Inside, he quickly made his way to the counter and ordered a strawberry ice-cream with some sprinkles on top.

He turned to the door and prepared to exit, all while sucking -instead of licking- on his ice-cream.

"You heard about that guy who turned all nuts after spending too much time on his phone?"

Julius stopped in his tracks.

"Didn't the same thing happened to another yesterday?"

Julius darted his eyes to the voices without turning his head.

"They're probably just trying to get us off our phones. There's no way that's the only way it happens. Is there seriously no reports of usage of different types of gadgets?"

"Hey, fellow teenagers." Julius greeted out of nowhere, having approached the trio. He looked at them, all dressed in dark-colored clothing. Emos, he'd assume. "So, uh, heard you were talking about people going crazy. Why don't you give me the details and I'll be off, yeah?"

The trio looked at him in confusion. Except for one, a girl with black-hair with bangs, who sneered at him.

"What do you want, you weirdo?" She spat.

"I thought I made myself clear," Julius shrugged before resting one arm on their table -which looks ridiculous as he still had his ice-cream in that hand-, "Give me the details so I can get to my work."

Looking over to her friends, the girl spoke up, "Come on, guys, this guy sounds patronizing. I hate that. Especially when he's pretending to be someone important."

The trio got up from their seats before leaving the place, leaving behind a wide-eyed Julius.

After a single eye twitch, Julius straightened himself before walking out of the store himself, glaring at the trio.

"I _am_ important." He said.

Then, Julius turned his focus away from them, noticing something strange atop a building across the street.

* * *

"I cant believe you haven't played a single arcade game." Clyde expressed as he inserted tokens into a game cabinet before turning to Zed.

"Not that I have never, just that I never got time to play anymore of them. Last I played them was probably around the 90's or so." Zed explained.

"Well, it's time you see how great it is to play them now." Clyde said.

The game booted up, with Clyde selecting a 2-player mode and assuming control as player-1.

The game, a side-scrolling shoot em' up, began with two fighter jets of sorts flying on-screen, followed with a text saying, "Game Start". This was followed by hordes of enemy jets which the two players immediately started destroying.

"Heh, didn't think a simple concept like this would be that fun." Zed commented.

"Of course. I mean, haven't you played any of these types before?" Clyde replied.

"Yeah, but there were less features back then."

"I get what you mean."

"Still, though… there's a lot of bullets here. In… beautiful patterns, too."

"Yeah, that's why they call this genre "Bullet Hell" Ronnie Anne responded to Zed's second comment.

The man flinched a little upon hearing the name. Which he also lightly grunted on.

"Woah, watch out for that one, it doesn't have any set patterns." Clyde warned.

Zed then focused on the enemy with erratic movements, "Huh, don't you think it's a little strange to put an enemy like that in the first stage?"

"Oh, you ain't never seen the one from the sixth installment yet, Mr. Abe." Liam chimed in.

"Right, that one." Rusty said with a groan.

"Heh, guess I won't ask." Zed lightly chuckled.

"Hey, look! You guys are just about to get to the boss fight!" Zach informed.

"Wow! And it's only been at least 5 minutes!" Rusty remarked.

Zed raised an eyebrow, "What? When? How…?"

"Guess that's just the magic of the game, Zed." Clyde said.

The screen stopped scrolling, before an explosion occurred, revealing a massive spaceship that dwarfed the two players' ships despite being at a lower plane.

The players began dodging every attacks thrown at them, with Clyde getting hit and destroyed.

"Oh man, this one's always been pretty hard." He said, before using the first of his 3 continues.

Meanwhile, Zed's eyes darted to and fro, analyzing the movement patterns and deciding on his next move on the fly. He dodged the attacks easily, delivering his own on the enemy's vulnerable parts, playing as if he was there.

"Check you out!" Ronnie Anne said in excitement.

"You're really getting into this, Zed." Clyde said.

"I know, guess I'm starting to understand now. Why you guys love these kinds of games."

Within a couple more minutes, the two defeated the boss, sending it down to the ground.

The screen faded to black.

Then, it lit up again, this time showing a picture.

"Oh right, I forgot to mention that there's a cutscene. It's the first time there's one only after the first boss fight." Clyde informed.

The picture shifted from the jets landing, to one that showed the player characters entering the ship. It was followed by shots of a hallway which the characters walked down in.

Rusty and the others shivered, with him saying, "A little creepy don't you think?"

"I like it." Ronnie Anne commented.

The characters eventually ended up in a darkened room that looked like an office of sorts, where thousands of document papers were scattered around in.

The characters began searching the room, eventually finding a document that shocked them. They were about to comment, until the wall behind a table opened up, revealing a screen. It booted up shortly afterwards.

Displayed on the screen, was an alien with very humanoid features. It spoke through texts at the bottom.

"Greetings, Earthlings. It seems you've found the plans to our greatest weapon."

"A galaxy-destroying bomb!?" One of the characters said, causing Zed to flinch noticeably.

"Yes. It's unfortunate… for you. We have long perfected the design, and its power has tripled ever since then! We will firstly test them, and once done, it shall be mass-produced!"

"Quite wordy for a first level cutscene, huh?" Clyde commented, only to notice Zed, whose face has turned completely serious.

"You won't be able to do that! Because as long as the Galactic Federation doesn't give up, you will never win! We will put an end to your schemes! Believe that!" Proclaimed the characters.

The screen faded to black once more.

"Dang, that was intense." Ronnie Anne spoke up.

"Zed?" Clyde called, with the others looking over to the man as well.

The second level began, but the man had yet to recover, his eyes were on the controls still. He gulped once, and began tightening his grip, only for it to loosen.

"Sorry, Zed, but I can't afford to see a game over this soon!" Ronnie Anne took over the controls, which the man noticed.

Backing away, Zed held his head as he said, "I'm sorry, but I need some fresh air."

The man turned around, taking his leave from the store.

"Zed?" Clyde called. He then looked back at the screen, before speaking up, "Hey Liam, why don't you take the controls for a bit?"

"Um, sure." Said the country boy, doing as he was told.

Clyde followed Zed outside. There, he saw his substitute teacher looking up at the sky with both hands on his hip. He heard him sigh, before hanging his head low.

"Zed?" Clyde called once more, getting the man's attention.

"What is it, Clyde?" Zed politely asked, despite his distressed look.

"Are you okay?"

Though uncertain, Zed nodded his head, "Yeah. I am, don't worry."

With another sigh, Zed looked away. His gaze ended up on a building across the street, within which he noticed something… quite troubling.

"Is that a Hexon!?" He exclaimed.

Wide-eyed, Clyde looked to where Zed was looking, "What!? Where?"

Indeed there was, both of them saw how one of them was simply walking through an electronics store from across the street. It moved its arms around, causing a brief blackout, before the lights turned back on, with the whole room cleared.

Zed pulled out his phone and began dialing a number.

* * *

Lincoln was checking up on Lily while Lisa was analyzing the results from the scan earlier. All of a sudden, he felt his phone buzz, which he quickly picked up before heading over to a nearby window.

"Yeah?" He started, only to react as if he was punched in the guts as he then continued, "A Hexon!? Out in town!?"

The boy shut his mouth, looking over to his baby sister, who briefly moved around before returning to sleep. He then looked over to Lisa, who stared at him wide-eyed.

He then nodded, "Okay, okay. I- I'll be there-"

Lisa's tablet then beeped, getting Lisa to take the call. It was Julius, with a look of distress.

"Where's Lincoln? There's a Hexon out here, just lurching on a building!" He informed.

"There's already another one?" Lincoln said while walking towards the tablet, his phone still in hand.

"Another one…?" Julius raised an eyebrow.

Just then, an explosion broke out, slightly disrupting Julius' call, but got Zed to cut out from his call.

"Hello? Zed? Zed!?" Lincoln tried.

Julius stared through the screen, his mouth agape. He then shut it, before steadying himself as he said, "Okay, Lincoln, take care of that."

The call ended there.

Lincoln brought down his phone, his hand shaking and breaths erratic. He held his other hand to his chest, before looking over to Lisa.

"Calm down," Lisa said, "Your best course of action now would be to head over to where Zed was. I managed to trace the call just in time since he didn't say… and I found that he was at local arcade, Gus' Games n' Grubs."

Lincoln bit his lip as he forced out, "That's where Clyde and the others said they'd be."

"Lincoln, before you go-" Lisa said as she brought up the tablet, tapping on it a few times before showing it to Lincoln, "-place your hand here, it'll help me to track your energy signature."

Lincoln did as he was told, before pulling back his hand.

"Get the others, and tell them to return." The boy ordered Lisa.

"Will do." Lisa nodded.

Without another word, Lincoln rushed out, barely avoiding impact with a pacing Lucy before continuing on in his rush.

"Lincoln…?" Lucy said quietly.

* * *

Luna opened her eyes, only to find that she was on the ground. She felt dizzy, and not far from her, were debris, which pushed her to full alert immediately.

Pushing herself off the ground, she looked around, only to see Sam laid not far from her.

"Sam!" She called, getting to her friend immediately as she began shifting around before opening her eyes. Sighing in sight relief, she looked around, settling on a nearby Oswald, who was knelt, silent and unmoving with his head pointed somewhere skywards.

"What happened?" Sam asked as she groggily got up.

"Something attacked us." Oswald answered. "It was a laser. I didn't expect them to use that now."

"W-what?" Luna said.

Getting back to his feet, Oswald went over to the two, helping both of them up as he said, "Come on, you two need to get out of the area now!"

He forced the two teens to move, which they did on their own volition after a short moment.

However, another blast sent a shockwave that sent the three flying away from their spot, to which the girls screamed at.

Upon hitting the ground, Luna growled before looking to a quickly recovering Oswald, "Is there anything you can do besides run away from it!?"

Oswald gave it some thought. He didn't have much time on it, as he was quickly forced to react to another blast.

His eyes widened, and he answered by transforming. Holding a hand out, the blast hit his hand, with a green energy burst forming at the impact site, dispersing the blast, it was soon turned to a misty cloud of energy.

Turning back to the two, Oswald shouted, "Go!"

The teens did as they were told, with Oswald joining them soon after realizing he couldn't sense anything.

While they were running for safety, alongside several other civilians as they just noticed, Luna continuously eyed the armored Oswald.

"What was that?" She asked.

"I dispersed the energy by reconstructing it." Oswald quickly explained.

Oswald stopped again, feeling another blast incoming. It came indeed, only that it struck several meters ahead of them, knocking away the other civilians. Miraculously, there weren't any casualties.

Oswald groaned before speeding off to help them.

* * *

Julius, having jumped over to the road, managed to dodge a rubble that fell behind him. He saw that the building had collapsed, leaving some people trapped inside. But to him, it was the least of his worries, there was something else there.

Looking over to a building, he saw that the Hexon, with body movements akin to that of a wild animal, prepared itself to pounce on nearby targets. The closest ones being…

The emos….

He was proven right when the Hexon leaped from its spot, forcing him to run towards them.

Miraculously, he was able to unzip his jacket, pull out his transformation device, and slid it into a slot strapped on his chest, instantly transforming him into a slimmer version of his previous armor.

The trio noticed the incoming Hexon, and screamed as they raised their hands up defensively.

But nothing.

They opened their eyes to see an armored man between them and the creature, both having locked themselves.

Their savior turned to them, before motioning them to go, which they had no qualms in doing.

* * *

Zed slowly opened his eyes, gritting his teeth and blinking a couple of times afterwards, before pushing himself off the ground with grunt.

He briefly held his head in pain, before remembering that Clyde was there with him. Promptly, he turned to where he last saw the boy, and found him lying on his frontside not far from where he was.

Quickly getting up, he rushed to the boy, sliding to a kneel before holding him in his hands as he called.

"Clyde! Clyde!"

In response, the boy groaned before his eyes snapped open.

"Wha-"

He was instead interrupted when a surge of pain coursed through his body. Most notably around his back.

"Easy there," Zed told Clyde, "You're okay. But uh…"

Zed slowly turned his head to the nearby arcade, which Clyde followed in doing, resulting in him gasping and getting wide-eyed.

The store was practically turned to a pile of rubble.

Clyde forcefully got back to his feet, rushing to the large debris that was blocking the entrance.

He looked around, hoping to find a spot he can potentially crawl through, or something… anything.

"Come on, come on…" He mumbled, not realizing that he was beginning to hyperventilate.

"Clyde, calm down!" Zed placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, which the boy listened to, indicated by the ceasing of his search. "Okay, deep breaths."

Clyde did as he was told, until his breathing was at least okay.

"You okay now?" Zed asked.

Clyde nodded.

"Okay, let's see here…" Zed said as he placed his hands on the rubble. "I can try to make some cracks in…"

"But it'll damage the remaining infrastructure." Clyde finished.

"Exactly."

Then, the two heard some banging from inside. They briefly looked at one another, before placing their ears against the wall.

"Can you guys hear me!?"

"That sounded like Ronnie Anne!" Clyde said.

"It's alright, we can hear you! Just calm down!" Zed told.

"Zed? Can you get us out of here!?"

"We'll try finding another way out… There's a Hexon out here. More than one." Zed broke the news.

…

"...No…" They heard Ronnie Anne said, before she seemingly turned her attention somewhere else. Then, a gasp. "Clyde! One of your friends is hurt!"

"What!? Who?" Clyde asked.

"I don't know, that Liam kid, I think?"

"Good-a-Lord… O-okay, calm down! Try to get people gathered around there, Clyde and I will try to find another way out for you guys! Just stay put!" Zed ordered.

Both Zed and Clyde then pushed themselves away from the wall.

"What now?" Clyde looked at Zed expectantly.

"We find another way in." Zed answered.

* * *

Somewhere in town, past waves of fleeing civilians, Lincoln pushed his way through in an attempt to get to the arcade as quickly as he can.

Eventually, the area became much easier to navigate as the people there had cleared out the place.

His instincts suddenly flared up, forcing him to run away into a nearby alley to take cover.

It was the news crew, the passed by without noticing him. Good. Can't let them see him, that's definitely gonna raise suspicions.

He then looked to the alleyway, deciding to instead take a detour.

* * *

After a bit more of running, Lincoln finally arrived where he needed to be.

He anxiously eyed the arcade, trying to see if he can find any way to get the people out.

Turning to his back, he spotted it, the Hexon. From what he could see, it was absorbing whatever it was coming into contact with. As of this moment, it was absorbing furniture in the store next to one that had been completely emptied out.

As if that wasn't bad enough, he saw several people still inside that store, occasionally peeking out of their hiding spot.

He hissed in annoyance, knowing he had to make a decision quick.

Suddenly…

"Lincoln?" A voice called.

Turning around, Lincoln gasped, "Clyde! You're okay!"

"It's only because I was outside," Clyde explained as Lincoln ran to him, "But there's still trouble."

"Why?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow.

"There are still people trapped inside." Answered someone else.

The two turned to see Zed approaching them, all dusty and dirty.

"You're gonna have to distract the creature for us, Lincoln. So we can find a different exit." Zed added.

Lincoln sighed, before nodding, "Got it."

"We're counting on you, buddy!" Clyde said, before turning to Zed, who was leaving. Promptly, he followed the man.

Lincoln turned to the Hexon while taking a deep breath. With a heavy exhale, he said to himself, "Okay, Lincoln, you got this."

" _Are you not confident?_ "

"Wha- o-of course I am!"

" _..._ "

"Whatever, I need to distract that Hexon!" Lincoln said as he pointed at the aforementioned creature.

" _Very well._ "

Without another word, Lincoln transformed with a bright flash of orange light, getting the Hexon's attention.

"Alright, monster, time for you to go!" He proclaimed.

* * *

Julius took a step back, and another one, and another. The Hexon continued attacking Julius, with him barely dodging every attacks.

It was a little hard to anticipate the Hexon's moves; it moved erratically, like an animal. A Beast Hexon.

Even with his slimmer, and supposedly more mobile armor, he wasn't putting up much of a fight against it. It brought him to groan in frustration before being forced to jump back when the creature delivered a larger swing of its arms in its attempt to strike at him.

"If that's how you wanna play, then why don't you try this!?" Julius shouted as he inputted a code on his brace, before taking off the disc on his back, bringing it forward and blocking an attack from the Hexon.

It worked, at least, bouncing off the creature's attack and allowing him to move forward, hold the disc properly by its newly materialized handle, and striking the Beast Hexon numerous times.

* * *

Oswald lifted a car, letting it fall behind him in order to free some civilians trapped between it and some debris.

He kept darting his eyes back and forth, from the civilians to the rooftops over in the distance.

"Come on, go!" Luna said, helping out Oswald in the evacuation alongside Sam.

"Didn't I told you guys to move on as well?" He asked, turning to the teens.

"Well we can't risk these people's lives now, can we?" Sam retorted.

Groaning, Oswald clenched his fist, "Guess you're right, there."

The armored man turned his head to see another group of people being helped by someone.

Zipping off to the man who was helping, he offered his hand in it by helping up the downed civilians.

"Thanks." The random helper said.

"It's alright," Oswald said, inspecting the civilians before giving them the go to go, "All the help I can get. But I believe it's time for you to go, too."

Nodding, the helpful stranger ran off. As he got further from Oswald however, he briefly looked back.

Oswald felt something, too, which got him to briefly squint his eyes as if to focus better on the fleeing man.

"You two," Oswald pointed to the teens out of the blue, taking them by surprise, "Go ahead now."

Although hesitant, Luna and Sam did listen to him this time and ran off, leaving the man preparing himself to battle this invisible threat.

Unfortunately though…

"I can't sense any life energy… but if I can just-" Oswald said to himself, before he was interrupted.

It was another blast, which he dodged by cartwheeling to the side, allowing him to see the trajectory of the blast, and in turn, allowed him to narrow down his search zone.

The moment his feet touched the ground, Oswald immediately burst into a supersonic sprint, closing the distance between him and where he saw the blast originated from, in only a second or so.

After nearing a building, he jumped up, with the height gained allowing him to see a Hexon crouched behind the barrier of an office building.

It was a bit like the one from the mall, except it bore no similar features. Instead, having purple markings.

But that doesn't matter; extending a leg, he boosted himself in mid-air for a flying kick that sent him shooting down from the air and towards the Hexon, almost instantly connecting the kick.

Yet, in spite of that, the Hexon blocked his attack.

In response, Oswald kicked using his other leg, gaining some distance before zipping off right in front of the creature's face before kneeing it in the stomach, knocking it back slightly.

Unfortunately, it was enough for the Hexon to blast him in the face, causing discomfort in the ferocious fighter and forced him to recoil.

The moment he recovered however, Oswald found that the Hexon had disappeared from his sight.

At this rate, he's gonna spend most of the battle being sniped by a cowardly Hexon. A Sniping Hexon…

As if a regular one wasn't bad enough.

In a twist of events, however, Oswald redirected his attention somewhere below, and saw Lincoln battling a Hexon on the streets.

Not only that, but he was greeted by another familiar voice.

"Watch out!" Julius warned.

The instant Oswald felt a change in the wind, he was pounced by something that pushed him to his back, which he countered by tossing it away with a kick to its stomach.

Instead of attacking again, the Beast Hexon stood down as Oswald stared at it.

"Sorry about that." Julius said as he approached Oswald, coming to a stop near the man.

"What's going on?" Oswald asked.

"That thing's tough, Ozz boss." Julius pointed at the Beast Hexon.

"Whatever, you take on the Sniper Hexon." Oswald ordered.

"Sniper what?" Julius tilted his head, only to hear rapid beeps from his HUD, which allowed him to dodge an incoming blast. Because of him, Oswald also managed to dodge it.

"That." Oswald said simply while knelt on one knee, before speeding off towards the Beast Hexon and clashing against it.

Their clash ended in the Beast Hexon breaking off from it first, before jumping off from the roof. Oswald tried to give chase, but instead saw that Lincoln had been pushed back from the Modified Hexon he was fighting.

Making things worse was that it morphed its arm into a cluster of spikes.

With a gasp, and widened eyes from behind his mask, Oswald jumped off from the roof just as the Hexon blasted the spike clusters towards the Ranger.

Lincoln braced himself, only for Oswald to land in front of him and quickly turn around via hip rotation, with his arm outstretched towards the incoming cluster.

Upon contact, Oswald caused the spikes to dissipate into green energy particles.

Turning back to the -not exactly- rookie, Oswald pointed at the Morphing Hexon, "I'll take care of that, okay? You take on the more basic one."

Lincoln saw that Oswald was pointing behind him, which prompted the boy to curiously look behind him. There, the Beast Hexon was hunched down, ready to attack.

"Alright, so-" Lincoln said as he turned to look at Oswald, only to find that he was no longer there with him. He did however, see a large hole in one of the nearby buildings, the destruction of which he didn't even hear.

So much for reinforcements.

With a gulp, Lincoln turned to the Beast Hexon, and immediately, it leaped towards him. Thankfully, Lincoln managed to put his arms up in time and block the Hexon's attack.

Unfortunately, the Hexon quickly resorted to trying to claw at his face, or his innards.

" _Well, this is it._ " Lincoln thought to himself.

" _ **Looks like I'm on my own.**_ **"**

 _End of Chapter._

* * *

 **End Notes: 1 more.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Notes: This is the last one.**

* * *

 _Chapter 11. Revision_

Lincoln stood on his end of the battlefield, just several or so meters away from what used to be the entrance to Gus' Games N' Grubs, to the right of its entrance.

Meanwhile, the Beast Hexon stood on the opposite end, hunched down and staring intently at the boy.

Lincoln was unnerved by how the creature kept its eyes on him. It felt awfully true to its beastly nature. He wanted to look away from the creature to let off some heat from the anxiety of staring back at it, but he knew it would also leave him vulnerable.

The boy gulped down his fears.

" _Alright, Lincoln, you can do this. You're the only one standing between that thing, and your friends. No biggie, right? You've dealt with a similar problem before. It's just another Hexon._ "

…

" _But there was that one back at the mall…_ "

" _That's what you call a pep talk, isn't it? Isn't it supposed to help assure you of what you're doing?_ "

"Yeah… but I mean, it's not always helpful." Lincoln blurted out, before sighing as he looked down. "Besides-"

A claw swipe from the Beast Hexon cut Lincoln from his "conversation", forcing the boy to dodge it by taking a quick step back.

But the creature quickly followed with another one with the other arm, forcing yet another step back from the rookie. The move angered the Hexon, causing it to try and catch the boy in a deathly bear hug.

Lincoln answered the move by quickly rolling forward, just outside of the creature's arm range before getting to one knee where he briefly eyed the creature. As soon as he saw it turning towards him, he got up and tried regaining some distance.

The Beast Hexon responded by running towards the boy, lunging forward as it attempted to claw on its opponent wherever it could.

Naturally, Lincoln tried his best to dodge it, something he had to keep up when the creature went amok, slashing left and right seemingly without no sign of stopping.

During the time he was defending himself, Lincoln noticed something about the creature.

Unfortunately, he was unable to react in time when the creature reached out once more, striking him across the chest, causing burst of sparks to fly out as he staggered from the attack.

But still, it proved him of what he noticed. The creature would overdo most of its attacks, leaving, even if briefly, an opening he could take advantage of. Now all he needed to do was figure out the most effective attack to use against that.

So he waited, and the creature took the bait.

Although he tensed up, Lincoln managed to dodge the chest-high attack by ducking under it, and tackling the creature. He didn't pushed the creature down, but he knew the attack was still fairly effective.

With the creature now slightly dazed, Lincoln wasted no time in delivering a series of punches on the creature. They struck at random points, but it was enough. One last punch sent the creature skidding.

Lincoln quickly reeled away from the attack, taking his time to inspect his opponent.

Groaning, he commented, "Better if that had finished it."

As if a light bulb just sparked over his head, Lincoln then charged up his fist over his belt, giving it a bright orange coat.

He ran towards the creature, ready to deliver what is hopefully a finishing punch… if he didn't stop once he realized something.

Somehow, they were realigned; he was now facing the arcade while the creature had its back turned on it.

Remembering the kind of damage the punch would do, he relented, stopping in place as he tried to reconsider his actions.

How did he get there? As far as he knew, the most he moved was…

The tackle; he must have overshot and not even considered the kind of rebound he was going to face.

Sadly, that was as far as he could think as he was then pounced by the Hexon, what with his distracted state and the force it was delivered, sent him down on his back where he struggled to keep the creature's claws from digging into him.

" _Dang it! How did I make that mistake!? I really have to be careful how I make my move!_ "

* * *

Meanwhile, Oswald deflected several spikes fired towards him, and dodged a few more.

Oswald continued on his path once the obstacles were cleared, and he didn't waste any time by bursting into a supersonic sprint immediately afterwards. The Hexon before him was a fairly clear target at the moment.

He did notice that the creature nonetheless responded, by turning its arms into spikes and digging into the ground, causing numerous spikes to erupt in a path that was heading his way.

In a split second, when the spike was closing in, Oswald stopped just in time in a position that placed him between two spikes.

His answer was concise; he clapped his hands together, causing green sparks of electricity to crackle, before touching on the two nearby spikes, turning them into powdered cement which was blown by the wind and obscuring the armored man from the creature.

On the other end of the battlefield, the Hexon flinched, forming numerous spikes on its back, all of which were launched off like missiles that soon homed in on where its opponent could be.

It could see its spikes being flung away from the smokescreen, with some of them landing not far from deflection point, which struck with enough force to cause shockwaves that blew away the smoke enough to reveal Oswald knocking away the last few rounds of spike missiles.

The Hexon, now enraged, stretched out both its arms which fused into one large spike. It launched it almost immediately after completion, sending it speeding across the battlefield.

Oswald put out both arms, after which he spun around, bringing the spike along with him where it was then briefly obscured by the bug-man's body as he emitted a bright flash of green light, before he turned back to the Hexon, revealing a vaguely missile-shaped item in his hand.

Completing the spin, Oswald threw the weapon forward, faster than its previous form did, striking the Hexon in a split second.

The result was very much something expected of a missile, but with greater power; the explosion ripped through the street, blowing away the Hexon along with chunks of nearby buildings. Among the destroyed items were a lamppost and a mailbox.

Seeing that despite its damages, the Hexon continued to get up, Oswald sighed.

He continued walking, soon reaching the destroyed lamppost and mailbox, both of which he picked up before merging them together in a coat of green light, slowly transmuting them into a familiar shape.

Swinging the item outwards with his left arm, the light coat broke off like shattered glass, revealing a longsword.

Oswald slowly increased his speed, at the very least, until he was running. In that moment, he pulled the sword in, holding it close to his chest and charging it up with energy.

With the Hexon dazed, it didn't take too long for him to close the gap, allowing him to swing outwardly.

The Hexon just barely registered its opponent's movement, which it groggily responded to by forming large, rectangular shields with its arms.

Inevitably, the blade made contact, easily slicing through the weakened creature's defenses, leaving a trail of green energy as it passed.

But, as Oswald's sword made contact, so did another one heading the opposite direction at a faster rate than the man's. This one left a trail of blue energy.

Oswald, having registered everything up until that moment, remained in his post-finisher pose.

He sighed, followed with a large explosion, which he turned to. Specifically, the person behind it. There, he found a familiar face.

"You again? Lund, was it?" He began.

The newly-arrived Commander nodded before holding his arms outwards, letting Oswald know that he's there. In the flesh.

"You plan to challenge me again?"

Again, the Commander nodded.

"Right after that battle?"

"Oh please," Lund finally spoke, "You barely used up any notable amount of stamina in that."

Oswald sighed, knowing that Lund did not fell for it.

"Alright then; let's get this over with."

Both swordsmen prepared themselves, brandishing their weapons.

Somewhere just a bit further behind the Blue Commander, a news van pulled up.

"For the last time, no!" A voice sternly said from inside.

"But, mom!" A younger voice said. A girl.

"Charlotte, no!" Katherine said as she walked out of the van, "I'm not gonna let you risk yourself out here!"

"But you're doing it, too!" The younger girl protested.

The girl was one of Lincoln's classmates.

"That's because it's my job to do so!" Katherine snapped, causing her daughter to flinch. She took note of it, before sighing as she pinched he bridge. "Look, Charlotte, I do this for us, okay? It's not just something I do for fun, it's not a hobby. I do this because people has to know what's going on."

Charlotte hung her head.

"Sorry, kid, can't always get what you want." Said the cameraman, before gently jostling his way past the little girl.

"Come on, Jimenez, we've got work to do!" Katherine ordered as she ran just a little closer to the nearby combatants.

Though with hesitation, the cameraman did as he was told, stopping just behind the reported.

"Uh, are you sure we're not too close? I mean, it's not like this camera doesn't have a good lens-"

"Quiet! Now, let's start the countdown." Katherine held a hand up on the cameraman, briefly looking over to the fighters before the countdown started.

* * *

Atop the buildings, Julius hid behind a rooftop door, scanning his surroundings as he did so.

"Dammit, if only I can scan that thing for long enough," He said to himself, before leaning against the door, "I could at least track that dang Hexon."

He then took just a little peek out from his hiding spot, hoping that he doesn't get spotted before he could even register anything.

Much to his surprise, as well as dread, there wasn't any response.

"Well, even if I managed to scan it, will I really have time to track it myself?" The armored youngster whispered to himself, "if only I had someone to help me do that."

As if something caught his eyes, he stared blankly in front.

Retreating back into cover, he brought his wrist up to his face.

"Hello? Lisa, come in Lisa." He called.

* * *

Lisa, with the help of Julius' device and its hacking capabilities, managed to trace every relevant cell signals around the vicinity of the arcade. While it helps her to keep check on the people there, it doesn't help that she couldn't access their phones and try establishing contact.

All of a sudden, the tablet briefly turned to static before showing a sort of vital signs display, alongside other things.

In the middle was a green line.

" _Lisa, come in, Lisa._ " Came a voice, with the green line spiking in response.

"Julius?" The toddler expressed with a hint of surprise. "What's going on?"

The young scientist then looked over to a small circular radar on one corner of the tablet. It showed a blip.

"Why aren't you moving?"

" _I'm going to activate my sensors and send you the signals. I'm trying to scan a blast so that once I've identified its energy, you can help with tracking it. I can't do it since I'm already busy out here._ "

"As if that wasn't clear… but alright, I'll help you." Lisa agreed. She then turned to the numerous cell signals, "You might wanna hasten your progress, however, as there are more important matters to address."

* * *

Zed slowly pulled back on the arms of his coat, careful in bringing Liam up to a sitting position. With every centimeter, he could hear the boy whimper, but he remained calm so as to not break the rhythm.

Finally, he got the boy to sit.

"Alright, Clyde, Zach, give him some support." Zed requested.

The two nodded, immediately running to their friend's aid, with the former helping with making sure that Liam catches his breath. Zach on the other hand, was back in keeping Liam's arm supported.

Zed let go of his coat, letting it fall before pulling it back. He then inched closer to his former student.

"Alright, since there wasn't any first aid kits around this place-" Zed began as he started making a makeshift sling around Liam's arm using his coat, "-or at least, found no signs of it yet, then we're gonna have to make due with what we have."

With that, Zed tied the last knot on the sling.

Liam, now with visible bags around his eyes due to having endured the pain, looked to his arm. With a sigh, he looked back to the substitute teacher, "It's alright, Mister Zed."

"What do we do now?" Zach asked, looking particularly weak-spirited as he asked that.

The gang, alongside Ronnie Anne, looked to Zed.

The man looked back at all his students, before looking to the floor as he thought of something to say.

"Firstly," He said as he looked up again, "I'm not gonna sugarcoat things… things are bad. So, unless the chaos outside subsides, we're gonna have to stay inside. As long as that may take."

The youngsters nearby expressed a look of disappointment, but remained quiet.

The only thing breaking through the silence were the sounds of rumbling and clashing outside. Some sounded too close for comfort.

* * *

Lisa kept a close eye on the screens, with her expression somewhat lighting up whenever she sees a spike of energy signature on the screen, only for it to disappear.

This brought out a groan of annoyance from her.

" _Nothing yet?_ " Julius asked.

"What do you think?" Lisa answered.

" _Well, just keep trying, okay? I'm sure we'll figure it out._ "

"How fast can your sensors detect? I think the problem is that we're not getting enough exposure on this energy blast."

" _Somewhere around 10 nanoseconds, then there should be a response. Problem is, we're dealing with what is essentially a laser so, lightspeed and all that._ "

"You're gonna have to somehow find a way to keep the blast in your sensors' line for that long, then."

" _Hang on._ "

Lisa cocked an eyebrow, before another few seconds of silence got her worried, leading to bot of her eyebrows being raised out of concern.

"Julius? Julius!" Lisa called.

"Poo poo?"

Lisa turned over to Lily, who supported herself on the rails of her crib.

"Oh, Lily. How long have you been awake?" She asked.

The baby simply responded by babbling, which Lisa somehow understood as she nodded.

Suddenly, the two youngest Louds were alerted by the sound of grunting.

Quickly turning back to the tablet, Lisa called again, "Julius? What happened!?"

" _Okay, standing in place didn't work…_ "

Lisa sighed, before groaning as she responded, "Why did you even think of doing that?"

" _Hey, it kinda works…_ "

"What? Really?"

" _Can you help check how long the exposure was?_ "

"O-okay, I'll get to it-" Lisa said before checking on the sensors, where she gasped, "-Oh my goodness!"

" _What, what is it?_ "

"The exposure time for that was around 5.13 nanoseconds."

" _So if I could just keep it going for a little bit longer, then-_ "

"We can identify the signature!" Lisa exclaimed, which got Lily clapping her hands in amusement. "Julius! How much is the effective range?"

" _Should be effective in a 20 meter range._ " Julius answered, before he hummed in a pondering manner. He was then heard snapping his fingers, " _That's it, I'll try reflecting the beams!_ "

"Well, that could work… but shouldn't you get a little further from where you are now?"

" _Why?_ "

"There's too much civilians in your vicinity, we can't risk their lives!"

" _What about the possibility of finding more civilians if I was to move?_ "

"That is likely, but-"

" _No time, Lisa, we have to end it here and now!_ "

"But-"

* * *

"Sorry, Lisa." Julius said before jumping out of his hiding spot, a hole on the floor of the roof.

Bringing his forearm in front of him, he began inputting some codes. He waited for the disc on his back to pop out, with his hand in place, ready to grab it once it does.

Unfortunately, the moment it did, Julius was caught by surprise when his sensors sounded an alarm.

This resulted in him reacting poorly, moving away the moment the disc popped out, knocking it away from his range. Right after that, a blast struck where he was, blowing him away a couple of buildings behind him.

Now laid on his frontside, Julius pushed himself off the floor with a pained grunt. Smoke fumed around his armor, a result of the explosion that blew him away. He also noticed that some pieces of his armor had signs of melting.

"Now that's not worrisome at all." He sarcastically spoke to himself.

Holding his chest, he looked forward where could see that his disc was right in the middle of the building across. Between his current position, and the building he was once on.

"That's… not worrisome at all…" He repeated, only with a somewhat somber tone.

Lincoln was pushed back with a pained groan, having just taken an attack from the Beast Hexon, whom he looked back to just as it was preparing to deliver another attack.

This time, the boy managed to catch the Hexon's arm just as it thrust its claws also blocked off another attack from the creature's other arm.

Lincoln grunted as he struggled to keep the Hexon at bay. During that time, he looked over to the arcade, the direction of which was still just across where he is.

" _Dang it, how did it come to this?_ "

Having been distracted, Lincoln's guard was lowered, allowing the Hexon to break through his defense and strike him right on the head which sent the boy staggering backwards.

Quickly recovering, Lincoln reacted just in time to roll away when he saw the Hexon pounce.

The two were realigned, with the arcade now back to the sides. But was it enough?

Lincoln took note of this; eyeing once more the building that was now to his right.

" _It should be out of range now, but I still can't take any risks…_ "

Lincoln's battle-ready pose slumped, the result of him registering another thought.

" _But how will I do that? How do I make sure that the creature isn't anywhere near the building when I finish it off? I can try running away and let it chase me but- it'll probably stay. If I could just find a way to lead it someplace else. If I could just… If I…"_

…

" _Can I do it? Can I do it all alone?_ "

Julius ran full force across the building, miraculously without being blasted on even to the point where he jumped from where he is to the next one.

Upon landing, he quickly rolled forward while adjusting the settings to his HUD.

"Okay, rerouting all power to primary sensor, that should help accelerate the scanning process." He spoke as he adjusted his sensors.

He returned his focus in front of him where he could see that he was getting closer to his disc.

But a blast on energy striking just in front of him caused him to make a sudden stop, so much that he lost balance and fell on his butt afterwards, complete with a high-pitched scream.

For a very short moment, Julius watched as steam fumed from the hole created by the blast, everything in its way had been vaporized. After recollecting his thoughts, he continued to move, going around said hole.

Things didn't get easier, however; just as he continued to move, the blasts continued, forcing him to dodge in a way that seems to continually get him further from the item he needed.

He groaned after just barely dodging another one, before deciding that was it and simply leaped forward, with yet another blast barely missing contact.

The jump allowed him to close the gap between him and the disc, an advantage that was taken of, with Julius taking hold of the disc and turning around, pointing it behind him.

Unfortunately, he was still in motion when another blast was closing in on him, resulting in him accidentally tilting the disc somewhere else and reflecting it away from the line of his sensors.

Once the blast passed, Julius looked to his disc. He sighed afterwards.

* * *

Lincoln continues his combat against the Hexon, resorting mostly to dodging its attacks, in fear of accidentally damaging any nearby structures should he be on the offensive.

" _If all this time I've been only capable of winning because of them, then can I really do it on my own now?_ "

Just as he finished thinking to himself, Lincoln reacted to the Hexon as it delivered an attack, one he deflected.

" _But how can this be? I've been at this for at least a week by now; I should have at least adjusted to it._ "

Again, Lincoln quickly dodged another attack, one he had to briefly keep up for as the Hexon delivered a series of attacks.

" _Then why don't you?_ "

" _Why don't I what?_ "

" _Why don't you adjust to it now? You may have comrades, but you know you can't always rely on them._ "

" _I know, but-_ "

An explosion from behind him caught his attention, forcing him to look to the source. There, debris zipped past overhead, which got the boy to turn again, just in time for the Hexon to pounce at him.

He managed to hold off the Hexon, but at a cost.

As he got hold of the creature, he saw the debris -with eyes wide open- struck the arcade, further damaging the building and weakening what little was left of its structure.

"No!"

Lincoln mustered every bit of his strength, using it to break away from the Hexon with a semi-charged punch. He quickly ran over to the building afterwards, before sliding to a kneel, stopping just within arm's reach.

"No, no, no…" Lincoln repeated as he inspected the rubble that blocked the exit. Before long, he panicked and banged on the rocks as lightly as he could, shouting out, "Are you guys okay!? Did anyone get hurt!? Hello!?"

* * *

Inside…

Clyde coughed as he recovered from a fall, or at least, what seemed like one. He briefly held his head before looking in front of him, where he could hear grunts and whimpers from a familiar person.

The dust cloud soon cleared, with the geeky boy expressing his surprise. His reaction was shared by the other people inside.

"Mr. Abe!" Clyde called out.

The man showed a pained expression as he seemingly struggled with something. His attention was finally grabbed when he saw Clyde and Ronnie Anne ran to his sides.

"Are you okay?" Clyde asked, which Zed stuttered to.

"Clyde," Ronnie Anne called, bringing to the boy's attention to what she was pointing, "look."

As he laid eyes to where the tomboy was pointing at, he held his head and began breathing heavily; he was hyperventilating.

"Whoa there, Clyde," Liam held one hand out, "easy there, don't forget to keep steady breaths."

"Clyde?-" Zed raised an eyebrow, "W-what's wrong with him?"

"He's prone to panic attacks." Ronnie Anne answered. She then hung her head as she added, "It was the same back at the bunker, too."

"What? But I've never…" Zed began confusedly, only to briefly look at Clyde where he finally realized it, "…seen it."

Zed's eyes widened as he looked to the floor.

"That's right," He whispered, "I've never seen him much during the attack."

He then looked back to his panicking student.

"Clyde?" He called out.

The boy looked to the substitute teacher, with his condition now slightly lessened.

"Listen, obviously I can't do much right now. I will need someone else to cover for me in managing the people here… you know where I'm going with this, right?"

The others all expressed a look of surprise.

"Wait, you can't seriously expect Clyde to take your place and do your job!" Ronnie Anne voiced out.

"I know, but…" Zed began, looking over to Clyde, "I'd like for you to try and convert that anxiety to a more positive energy. Once you're worked up like that, you should try and focus that energy somewhere else. Trust me."

"Zed!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed, feeling as if her words had fallen to deaf ears. It sort of did.

Clyde remained silent as he debated Zed's words in his head, wondering as to whether he should trust him on it. Then, with a look of determination, he looked back to Zed.

"I'll try." He said with a nod.

"Better than not." Zed replied with a smile.

"Give me some time." Clyde requested.

* * *

" _Julius. Julius!_ "

"What is it, Lisa?" Answered Julius, keeping his eyes around the battlefield.

" _You idiot! The blast you reflected caused a chain reaction! The arcade took damage from stray debris!_ "

"That means…"

" _Things have gotten much more complicated. Where's Lincoln, can you find him?_ "

Julius stuttered for a moment, before running over to the edge of the building he was on, scanning the surrounding area. It didn't take long before he finally spotted the rookie.

"There, I see him," Julius notified, only to notice something odd, "He's not moving… he's just there on his knees in front of the arcade."

" _Lincoln's friends are there!_ "

"What…?" Julius said, with his eyes widening.

* * *

"No, no, no!" Lincoln said as he gripped his head tightly, groaning afterwards, "What was I doing? I could have stopped this, but I didn't! Clyde and the others must have gotten hurt!"

Lincoln stuttered, darting his eyes around the building, wondering whether he should make them an exit. He knows the risk, but thinks that it would be the same either way.

The choice dilemma caused him to groan again in frustration. It was also at that moment where he came to a conclusion.

"It's all my fault… it's- it's all my fault!" He said as he got up, still holding his head as he continued, "If only I- if only I had just finished the fight, I wouldn't be here! Why did it have to be like this!? Zed was right! I'm too stiff when it comes to this!"

Lincoln then turned around, only to find himself pounced on by the Beast Hexon, resulting in him being pinned to the ground. There, he his thoughts of failing to save his friends never ceased. In fact, it briefly loosened his grip against the creature, nearly letting the creature claw his face off. Or at least, his mask.

"What do I do? I can't make any good decisions on the battlefield! I can't work alone!" Lincoln exclaimed, before adding in a somber tone, "I can't save anyone even if I tried… what's wrong with me!?"

" _ **Calm down.**_ "

"Huh?"

" _I don't know what it's truly like to be in your place; I may be an extension of your consciousness, I may be able to read your thoughts, but I cannot exactly understand your emotions. So please, recollect your thoughts, control your emotions, and ask yourself… why do you fight?_ "

Beneath that mask of his, Lincoln's eyes were streaming with tears, his eyes wide as he was asked that question.

With a sniffle, he answered, "To protect those I care. To- to ensure the safety of their lives. I just wanted to protect my family and friends… I never expected to be thrown into battle like this. I'm scared."

" _Then use that fear._ "

"What?"

" _If you fear that your friends… your families, might lose their lives, then see to it that you act against that fear. Counter the dark thoughts. Protect the people you feel this… love for. Win._ "

Lincoln smiled, in confusion and in slight relief after hearing the belt's words.

"How do you know what to say?"

" _By rationalizing the situation. Now, stand up. Stand up, and fight._ "

Lincoln sniffed again, now with some renewal over his will to fight. He nodded at the belt's request, before shooting a glare at the Hexon.

He didn't know why, but the Hexon seemed surprised when he did that. Rightfully so, he thinks.

Mustering his strength, Lincoln let out a loud yell as he pushed back against the creature, bringing himself back up to his feet before he charged forth, bringing the creature along in a skid.

After several yards, he shoved the Hexon away, throwing it to its back.

While the creature was recovering, Lincoln took up a stance, and proclaimed…

"I will not fall, and I will continue to fight! Until your kind is no more!"

* * *

Some minutes ago…

Julius watched as Lincoln was scolding himself for something he caused. Indirectly caused, actually.

It felt strange to him to see Lincoln, someone he thought had so much hope in his eyes, fall this far.

"Damn, didn't think it'll get this bad." He commented.

" _In any case, it's the more reason for you to end this fight quickly. Watch your surroundings!_ "

"Okay." Julius nodded, turning around immediately.

With his guard lowered, he was taken advantage of when a blast struck him right on the chest, sending him backwards, and off the edge of the building.

Acting quickly during his fall, Julius threw forward his arms, and by luck, stuck the disc in a window at an angle that stopped his descent.

" _Julius!? What happened?_ "

"It's alright, I'm fine!"

Now hanging on seemingly for dear life, Julius cursed himself under his breath as he tried to find a way to get himself back on his feet.

Unfortunately, he didn't have that luxury; for the first time during his battle, he could see the Sniper peeking out the edge.

"Lisa…?"

" _Yes, Julius?_ "

Instead of answering immediately, Julius adjusted his visor, before waiting for a response.

…

" _...Is that…?_ "

"If we're not mistaken…"

" _Alright, there are a few ways out of this, but I suggest that you find some way to sneak back in and take the creature by surprise. The energy discharged in close quarter combat should suffice in letting us track its energy signature._ "

"Fat chance; I've got heavy armor, remember? It's gonna notice me long before I get… let's say closer than 20 meters away from it."

" _What do you propose?_ "

Julius slowly brought his legs forward, planting them against the walls, before bending his body. Essentially, he is trying to gather just enough energy.

He used this energy to jump away from the wall, bringing himself to the Sniper Hexon's attention, staring it dead in its face as their views met.

The creature's eyes briefly flashed, before blasting out a large bolt of purple energy that was sent zipping across the air as it made its way to Julius.

Thankfully, with how he freed himself, Julius already had the disc pointed towards the creature at the right angle.

The blast connected with the disc, reflected back at nearly the same angle it was fired from.

From behind his mask, Julius heard a beep.

" _We got our signature!_ " Lisa confirmed.

Julius landed hard on his back, but had enough protection to allow him a quick recovery. His eyes were still settled on the Hexon, whose own blast was heading back its direction. He saw the creature almost effortlessly block its own attack despite it being just a little more than an arm's range left. Afterwards, the creature backed away.

Nevertheless, he had his signature.

"Lisa, current position?" Julius called.

" _Alright, I'll be sending the approximate locations of the Hexon. It should be in a radius no more than 100 feet away from you at any time._ "

"Good enough!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Lincoln was giving the Beast Hexon the match he should have given it about half an hour ago.

The two were quick on their feet, dodging and dishing out their attacks in rapid, blurry motion. Although there was noticeable difference with the Hexon's physical movement speed, Lincoln was nothing short of impressive as he dodged the creature's attacks, with some guidance.

The two were then locked in a grappling contest, with the two not showing any signs of letting up anytime soon. Lincoln however, wanted to finish the fight.

The Ranger kept the Hexon busy by moving around as they struggled to overpower the other. During that moment, he kicked the creature in the guts, briefly phasing it.

" _Always keep a firm grip on your opponent._ "

This allowed him a chance to break free; with the creature's grip weakened, Lincoln focused both his arms on one of the creature's.

" _You gotta push up with your hips._ "

With the words of a familiar sister in mind, Lincoln did as he was advised; he pushed upwards with his hips, with his shoulder carrying over the energy from it, and tossed the creature over his shoulder.

Afterwards, he took several steps back to catch his breath.

Smiling from behind his visor, he whispered, "Thanks, Lynn."

He then briefly glanced over to the arcade.

* * *

Back inside the building, Clyde was just finishing up with calming himself down.

"I'm ready." He said.

"Are you sure about this?" Ronnie Anne asked, to which Clyde nodded.

The geeky boy then turned the other patrons of the arcade, many of them had isolated themselves around the building after what happened earlier.

"Alright, listen up everyone, I need you all to gather back around here." Clyde began.

He got their attention, but not their compliance. If anything, he was only met with looks of confusion and disbelief.

"Come on, we need to make sure that when we're rescued, we'll be able to get out of here in an orderly manner." Clyde continued.

"Are you serious?" One of the kids said.

"You mean, if?" Chandler said with great pessimism.

"No, when." Clyde corrected.

Chandler simply looked back incredulously.

"How can you be so sure, anyway?" Marlo, one of Chandler's 'friends', asked.

"Well, when you hang out with the right kind of people, they tend to make you think in similar ways." Answered the geeky boy. He then laughed before continuing, "You know, it's funny, though. Had it still been some days ago, I wouldn't believe myself either. But time and time again, I've seen things that proved to me that… no matter how hopeless things might be, there will always be something to counter that."

Chandler scoffed as he looked away. Marlo actually gave Clyde's words some thought.

"Now, can we all gather around again, and wait?" Clyde asked one more time.

This time, the others wasted no time in getting back up and walking over to where they were.

Chandler remained where he was, but seeing his own friends walking away to join the others, he felt conflicted.

Clyde looked back at the redheaded boy, who returned the gesture with a sour look.

"Fine, fine, I'll walk." Chandler relented, getting back to his feet and walking over to the group.

Clyde nodded as Chandler made his way over to the gathering of people. He then looked over to Zed, who noticed him and gave him a thumbs up.

He returned the gesture.

* * *

Julius adjusted his sensors and scanned his surroundings, hoping to find an area where the energy signature was stronger.

Fortunately, he didn't have to do that for long as the Hexon stepped out, basically tripping an alarm that allowed Julius to snap towards the creature before tossing the disc at it like a frisbee.

The disc was blasted by the creature, sending it back at the teen who had already covered enough ground and grabbed the disc, leaping forward as he began striking the creature on the head numerous times.

Lucky for the teen, brute-forcing his way ended up working in his favor as the creature was now dazed due to the numerous hits it suffered on the head.

With the creature dazed, and their distance small, Julius now had the perfect chance to strike; he had an opening. With a lunge, Julius struck the creature on the stomach using the edges of the disc, staggering it further.

Then, using the bottom part, he swung inwards, striking the creature once more on the head. He followed with the same move in an opposite motion, repeating over and over until he finally shoved the sniper away with the outer flat end.

Unfortunately, the sniper was getting ticked off, and with the small distance it gained, it emitted a screech as its "eye" flashed purple. Not long after, a familiar blast of purple energy shot out from it.

Thankfully, with help from his sensor and his armor, Julius managed to block it just in time, reflecting the beam away. Sadly, it didn't end there as the Hexon continued to fire away, giving Julius no chance to take away his shield.

Little does he know, there was a much bigger problem that would soon come as a result of him remaining in place.

* * *

Charlotte watched from inside the van as her mother delivered the news.

She eyed the numerous screens that were being supervised by another one of Katherine's co-workers. Remembering her situation, she hung her head and sighed.

The large man beside her noticed this.

"Something wrong, kid?" He asked.

"No, not really. It's just that, it gets boring being in here." Charlotte answered, getting up from her chair.

"You know it's dangerous outside, right?"

"That's exactly why I want to be out there! I wanna feel the thrill!" Exclaimed the girl, only to sit back down while resting her chin on her hand.

The man scratched the back of his head with a smile before laughing. With the shake of his head, he responded, "You really are your mom's daughter."

All of a sudden, Charlotte's eyes lit up, and she lifted her head up.

"Uh, everything okay, kid?" The man asked.

"You know, you're right! I'll prove to my mom that I can take in just as much as she does!" Charlotte proclaimed.

"Yeah, kid, good luck with tha- wait-" The man began, only to stop as he noticed that the little girl was gone, "Where'd you go!?"

He heard footsteps outside, which made his heart cave in, before going off after the girl. Outside, he could see her running towards her mother.

"Kid, wait!"

Katherine, who was busy with commentating on the battle and directing the camera to what she thinks need showing. Her focus was absolute.

Had she not heard her co-worker calling out to someone.

She briefly turned around in a confused manner, only to turn around when she briefly caught a glimpse of someone running past her in the opposite direction she turned. Looking over to the runner, her eyes widened.

"Charlotte!"

The girl stopped just several steps in front of the two.

"Uhh, Katherine…?" The cameraman said, with the other co-worker stopping just beside him.

"Charlotte, what are you doing!?" Katherine asked, the calmness and professionalism of her voice disappearing and replaced with one of panic.

"I told you mom, I can handle this job just as well as you can!" Charlotte said.

"That's not the point! You're in a splash zone of debris, kid!" The cameraman yelled out as he looked someplace else.

Katherine was confused at the man's words, only to look over to where he had his eyes at and with hers widening.

Debris were approaching them. Fast.

* * *

Few minutes prior…

Oswald and Lund clashed, creating a shockwave that ripped through the street, shaking the nearby buildings in a radius of at least a dozen meters. Many of the structures began crumbling, but never to the point of a mass collapse.

Both fighters broke free from their clash before slashing away at each other. The slashes were either deflected or redirected, and at times, dodged. The intensity of the clashing of blades were powerful enough to generate air slashes, but never extending beyond more than twice their range.

With some quick sidesteps in dodging his opponent's attacks, Oswald moved in to deliver his own sets of slashes, all of which were responded to in a similar manner.

"You really are more than you appear to be, Oswald." Lund broke the ice.

"As in?"

"You're not even trying, aren't you?" Added the Blue Commander.

"You're right, it's time we end this." Oswald claimed before stopping, and taking a step back.

Oswald began charging his sword, as did Lund. Both swordsman reeled their swinging arms back in preparation to deliver the finishing blow.

Only for a stray energy blast to hit a building, causing debris to explode from it, sending them flying.

Oswald followed the trajectory of the flight and ended up on the small group of people.

Flinching, Oswald rushed towards them instead, with Lund keeping an eye on his opponent. Or so it seems.

Quickly breaking into a supersonic sprint, Oswald slashed at the debris, pulverizing them. Saving the young girl.

Unfortunately, there was another round of debris, this time approaching the news crew instead. Upon seeing it, the girl yelled out for her mother, shocking the man nearby.

Oswald barely exerted even a grunt when those debris were destroyed as well, pulverized in a similar manner.

Charlotte opened her eyes, only to see that her mother and her co-workers were still safe and sound. Oswald kept his stance, but acknowledged that fact.

The bug-armored man realized what this meant. Turning around, he saw that Lund was in a post-delivery pose.

"Mom!" Charlotte called out for her mother, running towards her.

Oswald briefly watched the reunion, before turning to Lund, who was now approaching them.

The news crew, and the little girl, saw this, and their very being tensed up.

"You saved them?" Oswald asked, still in disbelief over what happened, transferring the emotion over to the group once he asked.

"Yes. Like I said, I would prefer a fair one-on-one fight. That means, no harm would come to any bystander, if any, should we engage in combat." Lund confirmed with an explanation.

Oswald looked back to the now confused group, before turning back to Lund.

"You're a strange one, you are."

Lund gave a dismissive shake of his head and a shrug.

"Shall we end this fight?" Lund asked.

"Very well." Oswald said.

The Commander then turned around, taking his leave by walking away from his opponent.

With the Commander leaving, Oswald looked to a certain spot.

Then, as the Commander gained some distance, one of the news crew gulped.

"So, you think we should cut that part out? Besides, I think I dropped the camera." Said the cameraman.

* * *

Julius yelled as he pushed through the endless blast of energy from the Hexon, eventually closing the gap once more where he then pressed some buttons on the back of the disc, causing its rims to glow with pinkish-red energy.

He then shoved the disc at the creature, merely staggering it, earning a groan of exasperation from the armored teen.

"One more should do it!" He said.

Only for the blasts to stop when the Hexon was struck by an explosive energy of sorts.

"Huh?" Julius peeked out of the shield, only to notice a large gash under the Hexon, leading his eyes in a diagonal direction. He ended up meeting Oswald's visored face, who stared at him. He could tell it was one of disapproval.

He then returned focus on the Hexon in an attempt to ignore the man. The creature was still phased, and his shield rim is still charge up, it should be enough.

"Alright, take this!"

Julius yelled out as he stepped forward and gave a large swing of his arm, striking the Hexon right on the side of its head, causing an explosion that created a hole in which he fell into.

* * *

Lincoln stood still, but battle-ready as he watched the Beast Hexon strafed around in front of him. He made sure that his head also followed the creature so as to not let it think that he's completely stationary.

As this went on, Lincoln took the time to stabilize his breathing. However, he got too relaxed and had closed his eyes, remaining still afterwards while the Hexon was still moving around in front of him.

This resulted in the creature lunging forward to attack him. Something that Lincoln only barely dodged with the help of the Belt when it alerted the boy of it.

Landing several feet away from where he was, Lincoln groaned.

"No matter what I do, I can't relax myself on the battlefield!" He lamented.

" _Let's keep trying, maybe this Zed you know of has a clue on what he tells you._ "

"But I can't risk dragging the fight for much longer, I need a quieter place to practice."

" _Then I suppose it's best you end the fight right here, right now. That is what you intend to do, right?_ "

"There's no other choice."

With a beep of approval, Lincoln returned his focus on the fight, only to see the Beast Hexon approaching him with one arm already pointed towards him. He managed to dodge the attack by sidestepping it, followed by another from the beast's other arm, before having to duck under one aimed directly on his face.

Down there, the boy tackled the Hexon, dazing it just enough for him to then counter with a series of punches. Like before, no specific spots were being targeted. But it didn't matter. Not anymore.

"One…"

Lincoln punched the Hexon on the stomach.

"More…"

Then on its chest.

"Time!"

Finishing it all with another one aimed at the creature's face, sending it skidding away.

As the Hexon was recovering, Lincoln reeled his arm back, looking at the Hexon with a look of determination.

Seeing this, the Hexon emitted a loud screech, sending reverberations over a large area, with enough force to shake the buildings around it.

Lincoln gasped, briefly looking back to the building behind him. With a light growl, he looked back at the Hexon, which was hunching down.

While awaiting for the Hexon's next move, Lincoln began planning for a way to counter it.

Then, the attack was executed, in the form of the Hexon charging forward, straight at the boy.

Lincoln, knowing what he needs to do, braced himself; planting his feet firmly into the ground, with his legs spread apart for greater balance, and arms held outwards. He will stop it.

But if it creates a shockwave?

Lincoln's eyes widened as he realized he might pose danger to the structure behind him.

Then, he remembered. All this time, he had yet to prop up his shield on his own. It has only happened twice. He intends to make it thrice. But he can't do it, if he doesn't know how to control it yet.

This is it.

Closing his eyes, Lincoln said to himself, "Third time's the charm…"

Lincoln took a deep breath.

"Protective barrier…"

He took a another deep breath, this time reeling his arms back.

" _What are you fighting for?_ "

"I fight… to protect people. To protect my family. But to do that… I must protect myself. So please…"

Then, Lincoln's eyes snapped open, with his visor and belt emitting a blinding flash of orange light.

"Come out!" Lincoln yelled out as he pushed his arm forward.

To the boy's surprise, and understated relief, the dome materialized, forming itself out of numerous tiny orange circles. Just in time for the Beast Hexon to crash into it and causing the energy it accumulated to spread out everywhere except the general direction of the arcade.

In a moment, the energy died out, and the Hexon backed away as Lincoln's dome dematerialized.

The boy then looked at his hand, before forming a fist.

"I know what I must do." He proclaimed.

Placing his fist over his belt, he charged it up, causing it to glow orange and emit electricity that crackled around his body as he raised his fist up.

The Hexon screeched once more, rushing towards Lincoln, who stood his ground.

The Hexon delivered a straight jab with the intention of striking the boy right on his face, only to be answered with a deflection in the form of Lincoln raising his elbow on it, throwing away the clawed hand before retaliating with a powerful punch to the face, nearly driving his fist into the creature's face.

Over the buildings, Oswald jumped up, before running over to the edge, only to see that Lincoln was finishing up. But he did notice how close he was delivering the attack.

"Wait- wait…" He began, only to stop when he felt something else.

But Lincoln had one more trick up his sleeve; he materialized his barrier once more, this time enclosing both him and the Hexon thus, containing the resulting explosion.

Oswald finally jumped down, followed soon by Julius, who still had his disc with him. The man acknowledged the teen by glancing over, before looking back at the now smoke-filled dome.

It soon dematerialized, revealing Lincoln no worse for wear. He now stood in silence. Proud silence. He quickly took note of his two companions.

Oswald gave him a nod of approval. Julius expressed a sign of pleasant surprise by placing his hands on his hip and nodding slowly.

Not long after, a van pulled up not far from where the trio were. Then, its passengers exited.

Lincoln, noticing the girl, tilted his head as he quietly said, "Charlotte?"

Then he realized. More so remembered, actually, and turned around to the arcade.

To nobody's surprise but Lincoln's companions, Charlotte recognized the building.

"Wait, isn't that Gus' Games n' Grubs?!"

By then, the Ranger had already started lifting up some of the rubble that was blocking the way of those trapped inside.

Oswald motioned for Julius to stay where he is as he walked up to Lincoln, casually morphing out of his suit.

There, he helped Lincoln with removing the extra blockades.

Meanwhile, Katherine whispered to her co-workers, who nodded before pointing a new camera towards the two.

"Here they are, ladies and gentlemen, the two town heroes who have come to our aid, are now helping with evacuating those who have been trapped in the midst of chaos!"

The cameraman then pointed to Julius.

"But who's this? It would appear that there is a third one! Strange that he isn't helping out with his other companions." Katherine added.

Julius was actually surprised to hear that, which resulted in him simply turning his head away.

Just then, voices from inside the building were heard, having finally been heard after hours of being stuck inside.

"There it is, people, with their help, those who were trapped, are finally free to go out!"

* * *

After another five minutes, at least, everyone who had been stuck inside the arcade were finally free. During that time, thanks to the broadcast, many of the children's parents have arrived to greet them with open arms.

Everyone was reunited.

Except for Chandler.

Clyde, who was rejoicing his freedom only alongside Zed, noticed this.

Walking up to the redheaded boy, he asked, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Chandler looked away, "My dad's not here."

"Oh, what happened? Is he also hospitalized?"

"No, he's been out of town this whole time. Work, he says." Chandler explained, showing a hint of frustration when he talked about why it was this case for him. He then walked away.

"...Chandler…" Clyde said quietly.

Zed, who had been watching happily as the children went home with their parents, turned around and noticed Clyde.

"Anything bothering you?" He asked.

"No, it's nothing." Clyde said.

"A'ight," Zed nodded, before spotting Ronnie Anne, "Oh hey, Ronnie, nobody's picked you up yet?"

The tomboy turned to Zed before answering, "Yeah, I'm just waiting for Bobby."

Just then, a couple of vehicles pulled up on the scene. A car, and a motorcycle.

From the car, exited a nurse and a teen, both of whom sighed in relief as they laid their eyes on Ronnie Anne.

"Oh, Ronalda, thank goodness you're safe!" Maria said as she ran over to her daughter, giving her a hug afterwards.

"Yeah, Nie Nie, who knows what could have happened." Bobby added as he looked around.

The motorcycle was from none other than Oswald. But he had a passenger, one that Zed and the others noticed.

"Oh hey, Lincoln!" Ronnie Anne said, running over to the Loud boy. "Where the heck were you?"

"Sorry I wasn't here, guys." Lincoln said meekly.

"It's alright." Zed said, giving a smile afterwards.

Ronnie Anne looked around, happy to know that everyone was safe. She then noticed the only armored person left on the scene.

"Who's that?" She asked.

"None of your business, kid." Julius said sternly.

"I don't like him." Ronnie Anne added, causing the person to look over to her.

"Now, now," Zed interrupted, "Why don't we all go home?"

"Hang on, there's still something else I'd like to do." Lincoln said.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the hospital…

Liam looked at his arm, now with a proper sling given to him.

He then heard the door to his ward being opened, prompting him to turn to it.

There, his friends came in, along with Zed.

"Hey, buddy, how you doing?" Zach asked first.

"Your arm's good now, right?" Rusty followed.

"Sorry you had to go through all this, Liam." Clyde finished.

Chuckling, Liam responded, "Aw shucks, fellas, I'm touched you even took the time to visit little ole' me. But yes, I'm fine now. Doctors told me I should be able to leave sometime tomorrow. But this little guy right here? Oh, he'll need at least a few months to heal."

The country boy's friends then looked over to each other. Although still disheartened by the fact that their friend got hurt, they smiled anyway.

From behind them, Zed watched with a smile.

Outside? With Oswald?

He leaned against the wall.

"Friends, huh?" He spoke to himself.

* * *

Back at the Loud House, Zed finally dropped Lincoln off. This time, he offered to stand by the boy as he sent him back to his sisters. Joining the two were Oswald.

Almost immediately upon arrival, everyone exited the house and swarmed the boy. He was assaulted with questions, all of them the ones he's typically heard before.

For example:

"Oh my gosh, Lincoln, where have you been!?"

"Lincoln! I told you to contact us if anything happens! You've been gone for the entire day!"

"And here I thought the patients had it bad!"

Lincoln, crushed by his sisters, looked over to Zed, who shrugged before looking away while trying to not smile at the sight. Oswald however…

He stepped in and helped to break off the swarm by faking a cough.

"He's okay. Don't worry, we all made sure that no harm came to him. And, nothing seems to be too out of place, right?"

Luna was the first to calm down by taking a deep breath, and sighing out soon after. Then, with a smile, she looked to Oswald, and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so."

* * *

Out in the hills, just outside of the town.

"Nothing's working!" Korax shouted.

"Calm down, Korax." Lund said.

"Calm down!? I don't know how, but everything we've thrown at them, they somehow managed to repel everything! We need a sure-fire plan!"

"Relax, Korax…" A voice said.

The source, a man turned to the other two. It was the one who had helped Oswald.

"I assure you guys, I have a plan."

Korax wanted to protest, but had to suppress that desire.

Instead, he simply nodded, "Yes, Barzal."

"Good, tomorrow, we begin our counterattack."

 _End of chapter._


End file.
